HYDERABAD: Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) demanded on Sunday the government should fix support price of wheat at Rs1,500 per 40 kilogramme, raising it from Rs1,300 announced six year back.

The meeting presided over by president SCA Kabool Kahtian said that high rise in cost of inputs has like diesel, seed, fertilisers etc had necessitated likewise enhancement in the support price of wheat.

The meeting expressed concern over shortage of water and said that level of water in Tarbela dam was recorded at 1,402 feet, barely 16 points short of the dead level at 1386ft, which foreboded shortage of water in next Kharif season as well.

The meeting said that since sowing of summer crops in Sindh started two months before Punjab began cultivation of Kharif crops, Sindh should be provided water from Tarbela and Mangla dams ahead of Punjab. Farmers in Sindh had already borne huge losses in Rabi season because of water shortage, it said.

The meeting drew attention to falling prices of onion and tomatoes and feared farmers would not even be able to meet their production cost if the prices kept falling. The farmers, therefore, should be provided relief and their onion produce should be exported, it said.

The meeting called for withdrawal of land auction notices issued to growers who had defaulted on payment of debt to agriculture bank. Water shortage had adversely affected crops, therefore a new survey of farmers’ losses should be carried out and loan should be waived, it said.

The meeting demanded that tractors should be provided to growers for which draws had been held six months ago.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2018