HYDERABAD, Dec 7 The Pakistan People's Party MNA from Jamshoro district, Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur, has urged the government to give agricultural subsidy directly to growers as according to him the subsidy given to traders was not being passed on to farmers.

He was speaking at a growers' meeting held at his Latifabad residence here on Sunday. Growers from all the four talukas of Jamshoro district attended the meeting.

He said that to develop the agricultural sector, it was necessary to improve the living conditions of the growers. “Pakistan is basically an agricultural country but the previous governments had totally neglected this most important sector of the economy,” he said.

Talpur said this was the main reason that Pakistan was currently facing economic and financial crisis. He said that the PPP government was determined to develop the agricultural infrastructure.

He warned of strict action against all those dealers who were selling spurious pesticides and substandard fertilizers and seeds. He said that the government was also taking steps to provide agricultural machinery to the growers at cheaper rates and to check the sale of substandard pesticides.

He disclosed that a special team constituted by the prime minister had completed a survey report of the five pumping stations of Kotri taluka, which had been rendered non-operational. He said that those pumping stations would soon be reactivated.

The growers complained that after harvesting of crops, the commission agents fleeced the growers and earned more profit than the producers. They called for an effective policy to ensure that instead of the commission agents, the growers received the benefit.

They said that due to acute shortage of water in river Indus, the agriculture sector was suffering and due to the corruption in the irrigation department, the tail-end growers were not being supplied irrigation water.

They also stressed the need for checking sale of spurious and expired pesticides in the market.