HYDERABAD: Sindh Abadgar Board urged the government to ban import of tomatoes and onions at this point in time as it will do “irreparable harm” to local production of both produce items, which are ready to be harvested within a few days.

The board’s president Abdul Majeed Nizamani said in a statement issued here on Wednesday that crops of tomato and onion were ready for harvest in Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Tando Mohammad Khan, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Sanghar.

He said that onion in Nasarpur was about to be reaped and tomato would be in markets soon. So, at this point in time the import of tomato and onion would undermine local production in lower Sindh region and growers would have to bear huge financial losses.

He said that cost of production had substantially increased due to hike in prices of agriculture machinery and inputs and inadequate price the growers were getting for their crop. Onion was cultivated on 56,000 hectares and around 800,000 tonnes was produced while the vegetable was grown on 55,000 hectares and 750,000 tonnes were produced last year, he said.

Likewise, bumper tomato crop was expected this year as it was grown on 21,000 hectares and 153,000 tonnes was produced last year whereas this year the area under tomato cultivation had increased from 21,000 to 27,000 hectares and the production was likely to reach 210,000 tonnes.

Delay in cane price announcement slammed

Sindh Abadgar Ittehad (SAI) president Nawab Zubair Talpur in his statement on Wednesday slammed delay in fixing sugar cane indicative price and said that “economic exploitation and murder” of farmers continued unabated due to negligence of agriculture department. He said that cane price had remained unchanged for the past five years despite substantial increase in cost of inputs including fuel, urea, electricity tariff etc. The cotton production target could not be achieved due to a variety of reasons and now $2.5 billion worth cotton would have to be imported, he said.

He said that SAI had decided to launch a protest campaign in Sindh with growers staging demonstrations outside Shahbaz Building in protest against government policies.

Chamber urges steps to curb locusts

Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) on Wednesday urged federal and provincial governments to take immediate steps to control locust attack in Sindh and feared if adequate steps were not taken the insect might attack upcoming wheat crop which had been sown a month back.

SCA president Miran Mohammad Shah said in a statement that locusts had devoured guava trees and other crops in Larkana and Qambar-Shahdadkot, causing colossal losses to farmers. He feared if the insect was not stopped at this stage it would then turn to wheat crop and devastate it.

He said that massive damage was being reported in Sanghar, Naushahro Feroze and Nawabshah districts from the locust attack. Farmers stood helpless watching their fields being mowed down by the insect, causing them billions of rupees losses, he said.

He said that federal and Sindh governments should avoid further loss of time and help growers by carrying out sprays in affected areas. Vegetables, peas, pulses and mustard crops were likely to be eaten away by locusts, he said, adding the insect might threaten just-sown wheat when it returned to southern Sindh.

He said the situation could lead to food insecurity in the province and the government would then be unable to control it.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2019