HYDERABAD, July 15: The president of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah has said the mealy bug attack on cotton crop has been reported in different parts of Sindh and called upon federal and provincial governments to pool their resources and carry out a spray on emergency basis to destroy the bug.

He said this while speaking at a meeting of the chamber held here on Sunday.

He feared that if spray was not carried out immediately, Sindh will suffer losses to the tune of billions. He pointed out the early crop of cotton had already been harvested and reached the markets of Kunri and Tando Ghulam Ali. He regretted that the government till date had failed to announce official rates of cotton.

He said this had provided an opportunity to traders to fix their own rate.

The meeting demanded the fixation of minimum cotton rate at Rs1200 per 40kg. It called upon grower associations to evolve a joint strategy about the sugarcane crushing season and send their proposals to government so that crushing could begin on time.

Opposing decision of the PSMA about the ensuing crushing season, it demanded of the sugar mills to clear outstanding dues of growers within 15 days to enable them to pay taxes, bank loans and other liabilities.

The meeting further demanded the mills to start crushing season as per Sugarcane Act i.e., in October.

It said the decision of last year's premium should be announced without delay and those growers displaced and effected by rain and flood should be compensated and rehabilitated.

Expressing concern over the artificial shortage of DAP fertiliser, it demanded of the government to ensure the availability of DAP at the rate of Rs1,080 per bag as announced by the prime minister.