HYDERABAD: Agricul­ture Extension Director Gen­e­ral Hidayatullah Chhajro has asked district agriculture officers to check sale of substandard inputs.

Presiding over a meeting of officers in his office on Thursday, he issued directives to regulate trade of inputs including chemical fertilizer in the market, adding that quality inputs should be made available to farmers.

He said hoarding of inputs in market should be checked properly and action be taken if necessary. He said prices should be kept under control as it would not be tolerated by the government.

He observed that field staff should take notice of these things so that farmers should not suffer.

He expressed satisfaction over sowing of wheat crop in view of reports submitted by officers.

He expressed the hope that Sindh would achieve wheat sowing target of 11,50,000 hectares.

The meeting noted that inter cropping was becoming common in rural areas where growers were cultivating sugar cane, onion and wheat.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2014