HYDERABAD, Jan 21: Sindh Chamber of Agriculture President Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah has called for permission to cultivate sugar beet and demanded that the government should direct sugar mills to install beet cutters.

Speaking at the chamber’s meeting on Sunday Mr Shah said that if the government allowed cultivation of sugar beet it would be of benefit to both growers and mill owners.

He said that sugarcane crop takes a lot of time maturing; besides it is a high delta crop while sugar beet crop can be harvested in just four months plus it requires less water and produces more sugar.

The meeting demanded that the government should direct tapedars to identify tube-wells in their assessment of cultivable and barren lands and warned the growers would not accept the assessment if they did not identify tube-wells.

The meeting proposed to use Dhoro Puran after widening it to release effluent after LBOD’s failure and demanded that Punjab’s effluent should not be allowed to be discharged via Sindh.