After dewatering inundated farmland: Sindh to grow sunflower over 0.2 million acres of land

The Sindh government is likely to grow sunflower crop over 200,000 acres of farmlands for saving Rs 10 billion for national exchequer by reducing the volume of edible oil imports during 2011, it is learnt. Officials in Sindh Agriculture Department told Business Recorder that the provincial government has decided to grow sunflower crop by dewatering the inundated farmlands from floodwater.
As the Rabi season has begun in the province from October 1, 2010 and there is no chance to grow crops during the gap in between Rabi and Kharif seasons, the government has decided to grow sunflower crop, they said. "As per plan, the provincial government would first make the flooded agricultural land suitable for cultivation. The agriculture department has been asked to make some 200,000 acres of land cultivatable to grow sunflower crop." The purpose of the government is to save Rs 10 billion by lowering volume of oil imports, sources said.
They said the agriculture department has decided to replace an approved scheme of Rs 95 million with dewatering of agricultural lands project for materialising the proposed plan. They said the agriculture department has moved a summary to Sindh Chief Minister to replace allocated Rs 95 million scheme with dewatering project to make flooded agricultural land cultivatable for coming Kharif season 2011. They said the department has planned to purchase water pumps for draining of floodwater from farmlands before December 31. They said the Chief Minister had approved the proposed replacement and signalled for go-ahead, they added.
They reminded that President Asif Ali Zardari had directed to drain standing floodwater from the farmlands of the province to make the agricultural lands cultivatable before December 31. Sindh Irrigation Department was assigned a task to complete this project before designated time period, but they may not complete the project in the given time due to slow draining process, they said.
They said the flood had destroyed crops and submerged farmlands which are popular for Kharif cultivation in the province. As there was no time to prepare these submerged lands for current Rabi season, the department decided to complete dewatering project by December 31 and make the lands cultivatable for coming Kharif season and minimising oil import by growing sunflower, they said. To pace up the process, the department has decided to replace approved scheme with dewatering project to complete the process before December 31, they added.