HYDERABAD, March 30: Sindh Abadgar Board president Abdul Majeed Nizamani has said the agrarian economy of the country will be destroyed if the government does not adopt a pragmatic agricultural policy.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, he said the indifferent attitude of the government could destroy the sector.

He said that sugarcane growers had received good rates for their produce for the first time but the government seemed to have forgot that during the past three years, mill owners had fleeced growers allegedly with the active support of the government.

However, he said, with the exception of sugarcane crop, growers had not received even the cost of production of their crops such as rice, cotton, chillies, tomatoes, onions and maize.

He said that any increase in prices of fertilizers, pesticides, diesel, electricity and agriculture machinery would prove detrimental to the agriculture sector.

Mr Nizamani criticized the increase in prices of DAP, urea, ammonium sulphate, ammonium nitrate and other agricultural inputs and termed it a first step towards destroying the agricultural economy. He claimed that the second step would be preference to heavy industry in the ensuing federal budget which was manifest from ongoing pre-budget meetings and seminars. He regretted that the government had learned no lesson from its pro-industry and anti-agriculture policies despite the fact that the trade deficit had reached 16 billion dollars and more than 40 per cent population of the country was living below the poverty line.

He appealed to the president, prime minister and economic managers not to increase prices of agricultural inputs.

He demanded that the allocation for the agriculture sector in the ensuing budget should be made commensurate with its contribution to the GDP.

PRISONERS: The Supreme Court has observed that according to reports received from the Inspector General of Prisons, about 524 prisoners are confined in jails though they are involved in bailable offences.