LARKANA, Sept 9: Sindh agriculture secretary Nazar Hessian Mahar has said that the Sindh Seed Corporation (SSC) will restart operating within a fortnight. Presiding over the meetings of agriculture officers, peasants and tillers, here on Friday Mahar said that the corporation had been dissolved earlier that gave birth to the problem of non-availability of certified seeds.

He said that it had been decided to make the seed plant, located at Sakrand, fully operational as the growers and landlords had to buy seeds from Punjab in its absence.

He expressed dissatisfaction over poor performance of the Rice Research Institute, Dokri, and appreciated efforts of the director of Quaid-e-Awam institute of research for sugarcane and guava.

Mr Mahar said that under the new agriculture strategy emphasis would be given on research in the agriculture sector and producing new varieties of rice and sugarcane.

The growers, however, demanded establishing a seed reprocessing plant for rice in Larkana or in Shikarpur, the prime locations for growing rice.

He informed the meeting that Sindh government would bear the expenses of agriculture graduates who had succeeded in getting admission in any reputed foreign university for higher studies. There was no dearth of talent in the country but the need was to hunt and promote it, he said.