HYDERABAD, Aug 25: The Sindh agriculture department will launch a project costing Rs100 million this year for providing agricultural implements including sprayers at 50 per cent subsidy to farmers.

This was stated by the additional secretary agriculture, Dr Noorul Haque, at a workshop on “Mealy Bug Management” on Thursday.

The workshop was jointly organised by the Sindh agriculture extension and Sindh agriculture research at the Sindhi Language Authority auditorium.

He said that the sprayers would greatly enable farmers to timely combat insects and pests like mealy bug saving valuable crops including cotton.

Sindh Abadgar Board president Majeed Nizamani presided over the workshop.

Mr Nizamani called for eliminating the role of middlemen who were fleecing growers of their profits.

He underlined the need for providing more funds for strengthening research and promoting cultivation of sugarcane rather than promoting more sugar mills.

He said that despite floods and rains, the canal rotation was continuing.

The director-general of pest warning and quality control Punjab, Dr Aijaz Pervez, said that the agriculture department was working on various measures to manage mealy bug and conducting research on its different aspects.

He said that the Punjab agriculture department would fully cooperate and coordinate with the Sindh agriculture department in comprehensive control of mealy bug menace.

The director-general of the Sindh agriculture extension, Mr Naeem Korejo, said that cotton crop had been sown on 573,870 hectares against the target of 640,000 hectares due to late arrival and shortage of water.

The rains have also affected cotton, he said.

He said that a massive campaign to combat mealy bug attack on cotton was launched on the directives of the Sindh chief minister, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim.

“We succeeded in mobilising growers in time and controlling the menace to a great extent”, he said.

He said that based on the recommendations of the workshop, district level seminars would be organised again to prepare field staff and farmers to combat the mealy bug menace.

The director-general of the Sindh agriculture research, Mr Hidayat Chhajro, told about research trails carried out on mealy bug control and future strategies.

Anwar Bachani of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture also spoke on the occasion.

A video documentary on mealy bug control prepared by directorate of the agriculture information was also shown to the participants.

Comprehensive presentations on the mealy bug management were made by Dr Sattar Buriro, Dr Ghulam Mustafa, Dr Riaz Mehmood, and M. Iqbal Arif of central cotton research institute Multan.