HYDERABAD, Feb 15: The Sindh Assembly's standing committee on food and agriculture has called for more funds for research work at the agriculture research institutes in the province.

The call was made by committee members Anwar Ali Mahar and Munawar Ali Abbasi who had recently concluded a three-day visit to a number of institutes in the province to apprise themselves of the state of affairs of agriculture research.

A spokesman for the Directorate of Agriculture Information, Agriculture Extension Sindh, said in a statement issued on Thursday said that the committee was informed during their visit to Wheat Research Institute Sakrand that the institute had released high yield and early maturing SKD-1 and Imdad-2005 varieties of wheat for general cultivation, which would greatly improve the crop’s productivity and make it more profitable for the growers.

The researchers at Kotdiji Dates Station told the committee that the station should be upgraded to institute and a tissue culture laboratory and dates de-hydration plant should be set up for the development of dates in upper Sindh. The committee saw work on drought and heat-resistant wheat varieties underway at Larkana Research Institute.

The spokesman said that the officials at the Seed Processing Plant Sakrand informed the committee that work of revived Sindh Seed Corporation had been streamlined, its seed farms had been greatly improved and pace of production of basic and certified seed of cotton, wheat and rice had been accelerated.

The chairman of the committee Anwar Ali Mahar said that a comprehensive report to be submitted to provincial assembly would be prepared on problems facing agriculture research.

He said that the committee would also visit farms, field assistants' houses, training institutes and laboratories of agriculture extension department and godowns of food department after the forthcoming session of Sindh Assembly.

The committee members expressed their satisfaction on the repair of bulldozers during a visit to agriculture workshop in Sukkur on Wednesday. The workshop officials told them that they had repaired 44 bulldozers last year would repai 60 more this year.

The committee praised the technicians’ workmanship and underlined the need for training jobless youth at the agriculture workshops, which should be upgraded with more funds.

The committee paid visits to Agriculture Research Institute of Tandojam, Horticulture Research Institute of Mirpurkhas, Rice Research Institute of Dokri, Quaid-i-Awam Multi-crop Research Institute of Larkana, Agriculture Workshops of Tandojam and Sukkur, Dates Research Station of Kotdiji, Wheat Research Institute of Sakrand, Seed Processing Plant of Sakrand and a number of newly built watercourses during their three-day visit.