HYDERABAD, Sept 1: The federal sugarcane and rice commissioner Inayatullah Khan has assured the growers of sugarcane and rice crops that the government would solve their genuine problems and both the crops would be made more profitable for them.

Presiding over a meeting in the committee room of the Sindh Agriculture Extension department, the commissioner said that he would approach the federal government to redress the problems raised by the growers.

Regarding the rice crop, the representatives of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture and Sindh Abadgar Board demanded adequate availability of certified rice seeds of fine varieties, farmers’ friendly export policy, a timely and reasonable support price and provision of irrigation water at initial stages of the crop.

Director information Sindh Agriculture Extension in a statement on Friday said that the other issues raised about the rice crop included delayed payment by exporters to the rice millers, which resulted in late payments to the growers.

They also demanded that the procurement of rice in Sindh should be made on the pattern set by the Punjab government.

The problems faced by the sugarcane growers were identified as the menace of middleman fleecing them, late payment to growers, late start of the crushing season, delay in sowing of wheat crop due to late sugarcane harvesting.

The problems also included non-availability of high-yield varieties, utilisation of sugarcane cess for improvement of the infrastructure, development of the cane crop, welfare of the growers and fixation of crop friendly support prices.

The meeting was informed that sugarcane had been cultivated on 209,173 hectares area and rice on 521,499 hectares during the current year. The director crop reporting service centre gave presentation about the area, the yield, effects of rain on the crop and other related issues.

Besides field officers, the meeting was attended by director general Agriculture Extension Sindh Naeem Ahmed Korejo, growers representatives Agha Nasrullah, Ghulam Nabi Morai, Anwar Bachani and Dr Basheer Ahmed Nizamani.