HYDERABAD: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) has expressed disappointment over a Rs50 increase in the wheat support price by the government.

In its meeting here on Monday, the chamber demanded that differential amount should be paid to those farmers who had been selling their crop at Rs1,200 to the food department since March 15.

It said the food department had so far been able to procure 67,000 tonnes of wheat against its required target of 1.3 million tonnes.

It said growers were more comfortable in selling their crop in the open market at Rs1,200 in cash whereas official procedure of selling the crop was full of hassle when it came to obtaining gunny bags from the food department and then long wait for payment through banks.

The chamber observed that farmers would sell their produce to the government when they got a little higher price than the rate of the open market.

It said it was necessary that in order to avoid flour crisis, the wheat price should be increased to Rs1,400, otherwise, food department’s godowns would remain empty. It claimed that billions of rupees would have to be spent to fill godowns by importing wheat.

The SCA demanded of the government to fix cotton price at Rs4,200 per 40kg. It said cotton sowing was under way and if farmers did not see any bright prospects in terms of official price, the sowing would be badly hit and the required target of cotton bales could not be met.

The chamber said that in view of depreciation of dollar prices of hybrid seed, DAP fertilizer, agriculture implements and especially Russian tractors had dropped, therefore, the companies concerned which supply these goods should be urged to reduce their prices.

Dr Nadeem Qamar chaired the meeting attended by Mir Murad Ali Talpur, Akhund Ghulam Mohammad Siddiqui, Agha Nasrullah, Nabi Bux Sathio and Zahid Bhurgari.