HYDERABAD, Dec 18: Winter rains have hit hard paddy growers in upper Sindh and they fear they will not be able to produce bumper crop in the province in the present situation.

They partly blame the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supplies Corporation (Passco) for the damage to paddy lying in the fields as it failed to establish procurement centres and purchase rice from mills.

Growers said that only 12 such centres had been established for procurement of rice from around 200 rice mills of lower Sindh. “We were sure that Sindh would produce four million tons of paddy and around 2.8 to 3 million tons of rice but the rains and non-existence of procurement centres of Passco, it seems impossible now,” said Sindh Abadgar Board President Abdul Majeed Nizamani.

He feared that the growers would face shortage of seed even next year. If the Passco had ended uncertainty by announcing its procurement centres the growers would have sold the stored paddy to rice millers at whatever rates offered to save their crop.

And the millers would have kept the crop on a platform under cover of sheets but the produce worth million of rupees was lying in the open in fields when it was hit by rain.

He said that the only centre which was opened in Matli had now been closed as it did not have required capacity.