HYDERABAD, July 12: Sindh Abadgar Board president Abdul Majeed Nizamani and vice-president Gadda Hussain Mahesar have called upon Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and chief minister of Sindh Arbab Ghulam Rahim to ensure judicious distribution of water in accordance with 1991 Water Accord and announce compensation for growers who incurred losses through import of substandard seed, fertilizers and pesticides.

In a joint statement issued here on Wednesday they expressed concern over the state of agriculture of the country in general and Sindh in particular.

“Pakistan is the only country in world where prices of agricultural inputs continue to register a steep rise in addition to mini and supplementary budgets throughout the year whereas in other parts of the world budget is presented only for once”.

They said that at the time of 2006-07 budget, it was announced that no supplementary budget would be present then why a supplementary budget of Rs200 billion got passed at the ratio of 15.4 per cent for 2005-06. They quoted that on the first day of new fiscal year 2006-07, a ten per cent raise was witnessed in gas tariff while there was an increase of Rs500 and Rs670 per metric tone of urea and chemical fertilizer respectively, leading to an additional financial burden of Rs485 million on Sindh province.

They said that rate of interest on agricultural loans is fixed at 14 per cent despite the fact that interest was un-Islamic in the country whereas in India only two per cent interest was recovered over agricultural loans.

They said that in India even today urea was being sold at Rs250 while DAP at Rs500.

The SAB leaders said that acute water shortage and release of industrial waste were main factors for destruction of agriculture and rural economy, poverty, lawlessness, destruction of delta.

For instance, they said, the cultivable area of Punjab which was 13.25 million hectares in 1982, increased to 16.90 million hectares in 2004-05, showing a surge of 21.6 per cent.

Comparatively, they said, cultivable area of Sindh was reduced to 3.15 million hectares far from 4.2 million hectares, recording a 25 per cent decline.

They said that through remodelling of Thal canal at a cost of Rs2.24 billion, its discharge capacity had been increased to 9,000 cusecs from 7,500 cusecs to ensure that 1.5 million acres area would be brought under cultivation whereas rice would be sown on five million acres instead of 4.5 million acres.

However, they said, in Sindh out of 1.9 million early sowing of rice only 30 per cent could be sown whereas the late sowing fell prey to diseases and other climatic conditions.

Quoting another example of alleged excess of Punjab against Sindh, they said that one individual of Punjab had imported Hybrid seed from China and sold it at Rs300 per kilogram in rice cultivation area of upper Sindh i.e. Jacobabad, Larkana, Shikarpur, Dadu and Balochistan notwithstanding the fact that its germination remained between zero to four per cent which destroyed the growers.

They said that such an inferior quality seed also led to reduction in export price of rice because it got mixed up with rice while export price of $240 to $270 dropped to $215-$220. “The incompetence of agriculture department not only destroyed the growers but also brought a bad name to the country in export field whereas the Punjab government did not sow even a single Hybrid seed in the province”, they claimed.

The SAB office-bearers demanded of the prime minister and chief minister to ensure judicious distribution of water in accordance with 1991 Water Accord, compensation to growers for thee losses on account of imported seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, accountability of agriculture and irrigation officials and a peaceful atmosphere should be restored in Sindh at all costs.