HYDERABAD, March 1 The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture on Sunday urged the government to take notice of inaction of the Pakistan Agricultural Supplies and Storage Corporation (Passco), which had still not made any arrangements for purchasing paddy from growers despite having been asked to do so.

The chamber said at a meeting that Passco had failed to abide by the government directive to purchase paddy, which was lying in the fields in Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Larkana, Qambar, Sukkur and Khairpur without any protection from rains or other natural and man made disasters.

The meeting asked the government to direct the organisation to purchase paddy immediately as the growers were facing enormous difficulties due to Passco's indifference.

The meeting called for abolition of agriculture income tax, making urea fertiliser available at the Utility Stores, establishing wheat procurement centres at union council level and ensuring its purchase at the notified rates of Rs950 per 40 kilogram.

The meeting was presided over by the senior-vice-president of the chamber Mir Murad Ali Khan Talpur and attended by Mir Imdad Ali Talpur, Dr Shahnawaz Shah, Mohammad Khan Sarejo, Sain Bux Rind and other prominent farmers.

COMMITTEE FORMED The Sindh Agriculture University has formed a committee to solve differences between sugar mill owners and growers after noticing continuous drop in sugarcane production, which was having serious impact on sugar industry.

The university's vice chancellor Dr Abdul Qadir Mughal said at the first meeting of the committee held on Saturday at the university campus in Tandojam that the production of sugarcane as well as cultivated areas had shrunk in Sindh due to ongoing tussle between mill owners and growers.

He said that the situation had multiplied problems for the growers as well as the industry, which needed to be solved. Continuous drop in sugarcane production had also had a bad impact on the economy of the province, he said.