THATTA, March 4: The President of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah, has said a minimum release of 4.5 MAF in Indus downstream Kotri is urgently needed to improve the agricultural economy of the province.

Talking to reporters at Deewan City near Mirpur Bathoro town after attending a joint meeting of Dewan Sugar Mills directors, representatives of Sindh Abadgar Board and the SCA, he alleged that sugar mill owners in Sindh were indifferent to the plight of local growers and said that the rates of per 40 kg sugarcane was too low, and keeping in view the inflation and increasing prices of agriculture inputs, it should be enhanced further.

He said the zoning system was a better system and ought to be revived.

Stressing the need for a congenial atmosphere and strategies amongst mill owners and the growers to address the long-awaited permanent solutions of rates and other issues, he said SCA will activate and mobilise its resources and use its potentials to act positively.

Abdul Majeed Nizamani, President of the Sindh Abadgar Board, said that Sindh had been producing 13.7 million tons of sugarcane per annum till 1998 but, in the year 1999 due to denial of premium to the growers by the mill owners, the sowing graph of sugarcane plummeted to 32 per cent.