HYDERABAD, Nov 25: Adviser to Sindh chief minister for agriculture and food, Mir Murtaza Khan Jatoi, has called upon officials of the agriculture extension wing to use all resources and energies for meeting the wheat cultivation target of 900,000 hectares. He said the officials must remain in touch with the growers and ensure that the per-hectare yield of wheat was considerably increased.

He was presiding over a meeting of the EDOs of agriculture extension wing of the province at the local circuit house on Friday.

The meeting reviewed the progress of the “Grow More Wheat” campaign in Sindh.

He directed the officials to ensure that the wheat growers were providing best quality certified seed and unadulterated pesticides and fertilizers in abundance.

He further directed that a campaign should be launched against the unscrupulous traders who were selling spurious pesticides and fertilizers to the growers.

He said complaints from the growers against the sale of substandard pesticides and fertilizer was mounting.

He said a complete record should be prepared at union council level about the cultivation of wheat.

Speaking on the occasion the director-general agriculture extension, Naeem Korejo, said that for the current wheat crop the target has been increased from 880,000 hectares to 900,000 hectares and the production target has been fixed at 2.478 million tons.

He expressed the hope that the target of 2753 kg per hectare would be achieved.

He said that certified seeds of TD-1, Sarsabz, Abadgar, Bhittai, Marvi, TJ-83, Mehran, Kiran, Anmol and Moomal were available in the market in abundance.

He informed the meeting that so far wheat has been cultivated on 217,788 hectares of land and added that in order to educate the growers, 35 seminars have been held at taluka level and 50 at village level.

NPIW: Presiding over another meeting of the EDOs of Sindh on the National Programme for Improvement of Watercourses (NPIW), he directed the officials to submit a list of those farmers who have been provided funds for the improvement of watercourses but had failed to start the work.

He stressed the need for amending the agreement between the NPIW and the growers to ensure that the growers, after receiving the cheque for the improvement of watercourses, will start the work within the stipulated period.

He said that if a grower did not start the work after receiving the cheque, he should be proceeded against in accordance with law and fined.

He expressed his dissatisfaction over the pace of work under the NPIW programme and urged the officials concerned to accelerate the pace of work.