Leading growers of the province termed crop management committees constituted by the Sindh Agriculture Ministry for major crops as "cosmetic device" to cover ineptness of the provincial agriculture ministry and Sindh agriculture extension.
Most of these bodies are non-representative, which can be judged by the fact that cotton committee has only three members, two from Hyderabad and one from Ghotki district, while seven major cotton growing districts of upper and central Sindh have been ignored.
Similarly, wheat crop management committee includes two members of Hyderabad district and one from other districts while other wheat growing districts have no representative in the committee.
They said, likewise, sugarcane crop management committee included non-sugarcane growers except that they were representatives of two growers' organisations.
They expressed surprise over the inclusion of father and son of Dr Shahnawaz Shahand Syed Mahmood Nawaz Shah in two different committees.
They maintained it would be difficult for the growers of lower Sindh to provide policy recommendations to optimise productivity when the upper and lower Sindh had two different ecological zones.
They also regretted inclusion of number of non-technical bureaucrats in these committees including the director of information agriculture extension, who claimed to have engaged in showing films on agriculture technology in Nawabshah and Shikarpur districts, but, the ground realities are entirely different as these films do not provide knowledge on modern methods of farm management.
They said earning of TADA is a different thing while passing modern knowledge of cultivation at the doorsteps of growers needs missionary zeal which has not been seen during the entire exercise.
They suggested that the vigilance officers should be appointed to monitor the working of agriculture extension services and agriculture officers working under the district governments.
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