HYDERABAD, May 13: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) President Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah on Sunday demanded that the president’s announcement of exempting growers from the payment of agricultural loans amounting to Rs500,000 should be put into practice without delay.

He said at the chamber’s meeting that the government should bring down rate of mark-up on agricultural loans.

If the mark-up was not reduced the growers would not be in a position to invest more in their lands, which would ultimately lead to drop in production and GDP, the meeting cautioned.

The meeting observed that the government had been reiterating that it had broken the begging bowl still it was bowing to the pressure of donor agencies.

The meeting wondered why had the government stopped subsidy to the growers while the USA, France and European countries as well as many other countries of the world continued to subsidise their agricultural sector.

With the prices of agricultural inputs, fertilisers and pesticides on a steady increase Pakistan could not compete with other countries of the world without subsidising its agricultural sector.

STP: The Sindh Taraqqi-Pasand Party Chairman Dr Qadir Magsi has supported the call for Monday’s strike given by the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and appealed to traders to keep their businesses closed in protest against killing of innocent people in Karachi.