HYDERABAD: Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) has demanded the government should ensure 25 per cent reduction in prices of fertilisers as overall cost of production has exponentially increased, rendering growers unable to bear the cost of urea.

The board, which met here on Monday with its vice president Mahmood Nawaz Shah in the chair, said that the step would result in better yield and help the country save vital foreign exchange.

The meeting urged the government to write off loans of small and medium-sized farmers in flood-hit areas and provide them interest free loans so that they could restart the farming activity.

It demanded that the department of livestock should ensure availability of vaccines and medicines for cattle heads in flood-hit areas and ensure immediate dewatering of the areas where large swathes of land were still inundated with floodwater where Rabi (winter) crops could not be cultivated. It asked the government to waive off its dues for the Kharif and Rabi seasons. While farming activity was barely picking up farmers were being fleeced Rs500 to Rs700 on a bag over and above the already hiked price of the urea, it said.

Seeks 25pc cut in urea price, other incentives and relief for farmers

It expressed surprise that while local production remained same, its import as well as black-marketing had already started.

It deplored that while farmers were not receiving any other benefits they were being deprived even of fertiliser due to lack of governance. Reports were being received from some areas that sugar mills like Al Noor Sugar Mill had not yet started its operations and many mills were being run at much lower than their capacities, it said.

The meeting demanded that as crushing season had already been delayed the government should make serious efforts under the law to ensure smooth operation of sugar mills for the rest of the season. Small farmers would be able to cultivate wheat provided land was available within a fortnight because wheat sowing would be over after that time, it said.

The meeting regretted that despite passage of over three months after flood federal and Sindh governments had not been able to chalk out a rehabilitation programme for the calamity-hit farmlands and population as the flood had destroyed almost all summer crops and rendered farmers impoverished in its wake.

The meeting was attended by Dr Zulfiqar Yousfani, Syed Zain Shah, Malook Nizamani, Imran Bozdar, Taha Memon, Azam Rind, Yar Mohammad Leghari, Zahid Durrani and others.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2022