HYDERABAD, April 5: The Sindh Abadgar Board demanded on Saturday the government fix minimum procurement price of wheat at Rs1,000 per 40 kilogramme and give Rs400 per 40 kg subsidy to consumers.

The board, which met here under its chairman Abdul Majeed Nizamani, rejected the government’s support price of Rs625 per 40 kg and termed it as totally unwise and unjust.

The meeting said that the grain’s price in international market had risen to Rs1,200 to Rs1,300 per 40 kg due to a worldwide drop in its production so the present support price would only benefit smugglers, hoarders, bureaucrats and commission mafia and would encourage corruption.

It would push the agriculture sector, which contributed 80 per cent to the national economy, to the brink of total destruction and might lead to flour crisis in the months of September and October, the meeting feared.

The meeting said that the government would have to import three million tons of wheat at the rate of $600 per ton to meet the impending crisis. The government, therefore, should fix the minimum procurement price of wheat at Rs1,000 per 40 kg to check smuggling, hoarding and black-marketing of the grain.

The board called for reduction in the prices of chemical fertilisers to January 2007 level and supply of water for Kharif crops strictly in accordance with water accord.

The meeting lashed out at sugar mill owners and said that the impunity with which the mill owners treated government directives and the disdain they showed to growers during the current year had no parallel in the provinces’ history.

The meeting warned that the consequences of the mills arrogance would make themselves felt in 2009, when the mills would have to remain closed and the government would have to import Rs80 billion sugar for local consumption.

The meeting appealed to the mill owners and the government to ensure that the mills paid bills of the supplied cane within a week of the delivery of the crop.

The meeting expressed grave concern over acute shortage of water and observed that it was a very sensitive issue made more complicated by mala fide intensions. As per the water accord, 114 MAF water was not available every year as it happened during the current year and the maximum water availability was recorded at 103 MAF, the meeting observed.The meeting complained that the Punjab had discarded the accord and was taking water according to historical uses formula on the pretext of decrease in water availability. In the interest of country’s stability, the 11MAF shortage should be equitably shared by all the four provinces, the meting urged.