LARKANA, Nov 11: Growers fear the absence of quality wheat seeds from the market and open sale of substandard and unhealthy seeds, which are banned in the Punjab, will lead to delayed cultivation of the crop and engender another wheat crisis in near future.
The seed’s unavailability had already delayed sowing in upper Sindh, which would deal a serious blow to wheat production in the area, said Sindh Abadgar Board vice-president Gada Hussain Mahesar.
He criticised the Sakrand branch of the Sindh Seed Corporation (SSC) for its failure to convene a meeting of the board to assess processing and quality of seeds after a lapse of a whole year.
He said that the agriculture department supplied only 3,000 bags of seed weighing 50 kilogram each to Larkana at the start of the sowing season on Nov 1. Majority of growers were still looking for quality seed varieties of TD-1 and TJ-83, he said.
He said that in Larkana and Qambar-Shahdadkot district wheat was cultivated on 450,000 acres of land, excluding 100,000 acres in the katcha area of upper Sindh.
In the absence of quality seed, the commission agents were busy selling substandard varieties, which had lost germination strength and would result in decreased production, Mahesar said.
He said that Larkana and Qambar-Shahdadkot district needed approximately 15,000 tons of seed on an urgent basis and feared there would be a repeat of fertiliser crisis in near future. Amid this crisis in the making, banks had declined to extend loans, he said.
Deedar Jatoi, a grower of Ghani Jatoi village in the Mirokhan area, said that two varieties of wheat, Bakhar and Inqalabi, were being sold in the market but they were substandard.
Siraj Rashidi, president of Larkana chapter of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, said that both the varieties had been banned in the Punjab but they were being openly sold in the market in collusion with the agriculture department.
“We have time and again demanded that the government supply wheat seeds but it had turned a deaf ear to our pleas and now we are facing the music,” Mr Rashidi said.
He said that the government was bound to provide 70 per cent seed to growers on the presumption that growers had stocked 30 per cent seed in their godowns.
The stocked seeds were vulnerable to diseases and over the time lost 15 per cent of strength while at present the growers had only 15 per cent seed with them, he said.
He said that the chamber had assessed at least 400,000 bags of seeds to meet the requirement but the government had fixed it at 200,000 bags. On one hand seed varieties of TD-I and TJ-83 were absent from eth market and on the other Bakhar and Inqalabi, which were banned in the Punjab were being openly sold, he said.
He feared shortage of DAP fertiliser in future and said it would again repeat the crisis the growers had just put up with. “We are ready to buy TD-1 at Rs2,400 per 50 kilogram bag but the government has failed to make it available,” he said.
Sources said that the government was planning to supply wheat stored in its godowns to growers to meet the shortage. But according to growers the stored wheat was a mixture of different varieties, which can affect production.