HYDERABAD, July 20: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture has expressed concern over water shortage at the tail-end of canals and urged President Asif Ali Zardari to take immediate measures to save agriculture from destruction.

At a meeting held here on Friday, SCA president Dr Nadeem Qamar said that although water shortage was equally affecting all growers but those holding land in the tail-end areas of canals were the worst affected because of gross mismanagement by irrigation officials.

He said standing crops on thousands of acres had bee affected, inflicting huge losses on growers who had invested in Kharif crops. Undue rise in the cost of inputs and declining prices of produce were pushing the farm sector to the verge of destruction, he said.

Since majority of growers were PPP voters and this being an election year, he said, the government was urged to act on a war footing to save the sector.

He said that despite improved water flows in the river growers in tail-end areas were still not getting water with the result that standing crops were drying up.

The canals, he said, could take only 70 to 80 per cent of their total capacity because of lack of maintenance which also contributed to shortage.

President Zardari who is in Sindh these days should intervene and take measures to rescue the farm sector. Prices of crops should be made commensurate with the cost of production to help growers.

He called for fixing 40kg price of cotton at Rs3,600 and said it should be made binding on the Trading Corporation of Pakistan to start buying cotton right now so that Sindh could benefit.

He demanded price of sugarcane fixed at Rs250 per 40kg and said the government should start exporting sugar to pre-empt instability in markets during the next crushing season.

He said the price of Irri 6 rice should be fixed at Rs1,200 per 40kg and that of Basmati at Rs2,000.