HYDERABAD, Dec 3: Leading growers of the province are unanimous in their demand that the Sindh government should take over all the sugar mills to ensure they keep going and appoint receivers in each mill to buy sugarcane from the growers.

The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture at its weekly meeting held on Sunday assured the government that the growers would supply the cane at the official rate.

The meeting chaired by Agha Nasrullah pointed out that the mills’ closure at such a crucial stage would deal a death blow to the farmers who were still smarting from the tremendous losses from recent heavy rains. The sugarcane was one of the crops, which was destroyed if not harvested on time, he warned.

The meeting appealed to the growers to get in contact with the director of agriculture engineering to buy drip irrigation system, recently introduced by the Sindh government to resolve the problem of water shortage.

Leading progressive grower Abdul Hadi Memon told a news conference at the local press club that the recent heavy rains had left the agricultural infrastructure in very bad shape and there was no doubt the country was heading for an agriculture crisis brought about by the closure of sugar mills, which he alleged enjoyed government’s blessings.

The former chairman of Market Committee dismissed the sugar mills’ claim of “no-cane situation” and charged that the only reason for the closure was their plan to compel growers to sell their produce at throwaway prices given the fact the growers could not keep their crop standing in the fields for so long.