LARKANA, Dec 24: Larkana district government has asked the rice millers and traders, desperate for the disposal of their piled-up stocks of Sugdasi Rice to prepare their case for a meeting to be held in Larkana with the federal additional secretary of food and agriculture.

Sources in the district government's secretariat told 'Dawn' on Wednesday that district council Larkana in its resolution on October 16, 2004 drew the attention of federal and provincial governments towards the situation. It had proposed to procure around 0.2 million tons of Sugdasi rice lying at 75 mills in Sindh and Balochistan saving growers, millers from big financial losses.

Taking notice of the situation the federal additional secretary food and agriculture called a meeting with the representative of millers, growers, along with secretary agriculture Sindh, director rice research institute Dokri and Kalashah Kakool, district nazim, district coordination officer.

The district nazim said that they would try to find a solution. The spokesman for Sindh-Balochistan Rice Millers and Traders (SBRMTA) said that the stocks valuing Rs200 million, lying in different godowns, would cast not only negative impact on the Rice industry but also put millers and growers mostly relying on bank loans, in tedious situation.

Gada Hussain Mahisar, President of SBRMTA, said that the association's efforts to sell Sugdasi rice to Sri Lanka through Rice Trading Corporation of Pakistan were opposed by Lahore-based rice traders association under a lame excuse. He said despite the unanimous resolutions of district councils Larkana and Shikarpur, government had not decided about the purchase of Sugdasi rice.

However, it was learnt here on Wednesday that Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) in a letter to the district nazim said that 'Sugdasi' variety of Rice was not being grown in Sindh.

On being contacted the spokesman of SBRMTA alleged that certain quarters were unnecessarily putting hurdles in the export of Sugdasi variety of rice. The district government and the SBRMTA were of the view that government should arrange the procurement of Rice through PASSCO and Trading Corporation of Pakistan so as to save growers, millers and the population connected with this trade from further losses.