LARKANA, Oct 13: An association of grower has urged the government to come to the rescue of agriculture sector, especially in the given circumstances when a host of problems have obscured the future prospects of farmers.

Central Vice-President of the Sindh Abadgar Board Gada Hussain Mahesar talking to this correspondent on Thursday said that the government should fix paddy procurement price at Rs1,200 per 40kg as anything below it would ruin growers.

The paddy, last year, was sold at Rs950-Rs1,000 per 40kg but farmers now had no option but to trade it at Rs750 to Rs850 per 40kg, he said.

Paddy was cultivated on 2.3 million acres in this province but around 70 per cent standing crop in Thatta, Dadu, Shikaprur, Jacobabad, Qambar-Shahdadkot and Kashmor on the Right Bank alone face devastations in last year's floods, Mr Mahesar said. However, 1.2 million metric tons of rice was exported despite the odds.

Around 60 per cent of standing paddy crop was damaged by the heavy rains paired with breaches and overflowing drains on the left bank of Indus, besides leaving growers in a lurch to secure their harvested crop. Inundation on a vast area left hardly any space for the crop to be stored, he said.

He urged the government to fix a reasonable price for paddy as any deviation was likely to inflict colossal losses to farmers and would totally rip small growers because of their incapacity to repay even bank loans.

Growers are at loss over fast application of hybrid seeds which one day would replace IRRI-6 and S-282 and reduce our foreign exchange earnings, he said.

Mahesar questioned as to who had given permission to multinational companies to sell hybrid seeds in Sindh only, since it was not being cultivated in Punjab.

Mr Mahesar appealed to the federal government, Sindh Chief Minister and the department of agriculture to salvage growers who were already reeling under heavy loans coupled with reduced paddy rates. The remedy would be to immediately fix procurement price and entrust an agency to buy rice.