HYDERABAD, April 28: Food scientists and agriculturists said on Monday that the growers were incurring huge losses mainly due to ignorance of the use of latest technology for preservation of fruits and vegetables.

They were speaking at the concluding session of a training course organised by the Sindh Agriculture University for onion growers.

The director of the Institute of Food Sciences and Technology of the university, Dr Sagheer Ahmed Shaikh, said that land resources would have to be used to optimum level and in a correct manner in order to end hunger and poverty in the province. The outdated methods of cultivation were destroying the soil’s fertility, he observed.

He said that the growers were not even getting their cost of production due to destruction of land and urged them to cultivate vegetables and fruits to earn more income.

The director of SAWFCO Abdul Maalik Soomro said that the growers were incurring huge losses for lack of knowledge about the use of latest technology in cultivating and harvesting crops.

He appreciated the university’s role in imparting training to growers, especially rural women in the latest technology, and urged other agriculture institutions to perform their role in this regard.

Prof. Mohammad Ismail Kumbhar said that onion was produced in huge quantity in the province but the growers failed to get adequate prices for their produce due to lack of knowledge about latest technology and marketing.

The commission agents, he said, had become multimillionaires but the poor growers could not even get cost of production. It had become all the more necessary that the growers should not only be given training in the marketing of their crops but also in the preservation of onion for a longer period.

Prof Noor Mohammad Miano said that there was no doubt about the fertility of Sindh’s land. The growers were also putting in their best efforts but there was dire need for imparting training to growers to run the agriculture sector as an industry, he said.