Growers seek probe into low cottonseed output

The Sindh Abadgar Board working committee meeting on Monday dredge out positively from the unproductive analysis of the situation, created by sub-standard seed supplied by the private sector seed companies, and demanded that the Agriculture Extension department should probe into the incident to determine the causes of low-production of cotton seed.
At a joint meeting of director generals Agriculture Extension, Agriculture Research, Onfarm water management, presided over by SAB President Abdul Majeed Nizamani and attended by growers from all over the province, the working committee members expressed their discontent over the working of the government organisations related to agriculture sector.
They pointed out that the government had not specified how much deduction was permissible beyond the benchmark, which had proven bonanza for the ginners to deduct weight of cotton seed on the pretext of moisture at their will causing billion of rupees losses to cotton growers.
The working committee also expressed their concern over the snail pace implementation of watercourses improvement projects. The committee was of the view that with current pace the completion of project of lining 30,000 watercourses would take years together instead of its schedule of four years, which would enhance the cost of project manifold.
The committee emphasised the need for accelerating the pace of the project, as water remains the main constraint in development of agriculture sector. The meeting suggested that the condition of previously lined watercourses should be removed and the level of distributory should be taken into account before alignment to newly lined watercourses.
The growers were of the view that agriculture in arid zone and saline require certain attention from Agriculture Research and Onfarm water management essential for the survival of the people of these areas.
The committee was critical of Agriculture Research and said that the agriculture research in the province was non-existent and they did not find any progress or advantage of the research.
The working committee also demanded that allocation for agriculture sector should be enhanced from 0.3 percent of GDP to one percent.
The top agriculture officer informed the growers forum that it had been decided in principle that the growers representatives should be included in all committees formed in future to resolve the problems confronted by farming communities and also in committees constituted for the sustainable development of the agriculture sector.
Earlier, in their routine monthly meeting, the working committee expressed their concern over the support price of wheat fixed by ECC for the cropping season 2005-06. They maintained that the rise of Rs 15 in support price would not be effective to meet the current inflation.