HYDERABAD, June 4: The Sindh Agriculture department has constituted an Information Exchange Forum under a federally-funded project of “Integration of Agriculture Research and Extension Activities”.

Headed by the director general, Agriculture Research and Extension, Sindh, the Information Exchange Forum will have all directors of research and extension wings, executive district officers agriculture and district officers agriculture, directors of agriculture engineering and water management wings and representatives of the Sindh Abadgar Board and Sindh Chamber of Agriculture as members.

The Information Exchange Forum will filter and approve standard crop production technologies, particularly for the crops of economic importance for different ecological regions and disseminate them to the farming community.

The filtered out recommendations will also be printed and circulated among extension and research workers and farmers.

A spokesman of the agriculture department in a statement issued here on Wednesday said that the Information Exchange Forum will analyse the problems of farmers in the fields, particularly in respect of raising the base of productivity levels of various crops, including horticulture crops.

He said the terms of reference of the Information Exchange Forum further provide that the research technology would be provided to farmers at their doorsteps through demonstrations, exhibitions, personal contacts and other ways.

He said that for demonstration purposes, the agriculture department will provide seed and fertilizer at a rebate of 50 per cent in the first year, 40 per cent in the second year and 30 per cent in the third year of the Integration of Agriculture Research and Extension Activities (IARE) project.

He said new technologies like parachute plantation of rice and pink ballworm ropes will also be provided to the interested farmers at 50 per cent rebate.