HYDERABAD, March 19: The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) appealed to the prime minister to announce a clear policy on the prices of fertilisers before the approaching Kharif season set in. In a communication to the premier on Monday, a copy of which was faxed to Dawn, SAB President Abdul Majeed Nizamani said that the farmers had expected bumper crop of wheat this year after the government decision to rationalise DAP prices.

He said that the government had announced that prices would continue but so far had not announced a clear policy in this regard.

He said that the dealers had ratcheted up the prices of phosphatic fertilisers by Rs550 per bag in the absence of a clear policy. With Kharif season about to start it was imperative that the prices were fixed for DAP for the Kharif crops, he said.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) demanded in a meeting on Sunday that the government should take steps to put an end to black-marketing of DAP fertilisers to protect growers from exploiting dealers.

The meeting pointed out that the government had fixed the price of DAP at Rs811 per bag to benefit the growers but the dealers were selling it for Rs1,350 a bag, much to the frustration of growers. The meeting observed that the banks in Punjab were granting loans for livestock sector at two per cent interest rate while no such facility was available to growers in Sindh.