KARACHI: Date exports declined to an alarming level in the last two years as lower prices are discouraging growers, a provincial minister said on Monday.Sindh Minister for Agriculture Ismail Rahu.
RIVERBED of the mighty Indus near Gaimro dyke witnesses an unusual bustle with a combined harvester, a costly machinery, being used for wheat harvesting on one side and a heavy duty modernised tractor employed for even distribution of fertiliser to ensure spring cultivation of sugarcane, on the other.
The newly sown crop is then watered using groundwater lifted through tube-wells.
Ghotki is located on the left bank of the Indus and its command area is fed by Ghotki feeder canal of Guddu barrage, the first barrage over the Indus in Sindh, while the riverine area near Gaimro dyke, where mechanised means are being used for spring cultivation of sugarcane, falls within the jurisdiction of the Katcho Bhindi police station.
The Sindh government will procure only 1.4m tonnes of wheat out of the 3.8-3.9m tonnes of the grain the province is likely to produce. Reuters/File
THE increase of Rs600 in per 40kg support price of wheat by the Sindh government looks attractive to farmers on the face of it. However, this increase of almost 43 per cent will not benefit consumers in terms of flour prices as they will continue to pay Rs64 to Rs70 per kilogram of flour.
Interestingly, the farmers might not be able to get this support price. The Sindh government will procure only 1.4m tonnes of wheat out of the 3.8-3.9m tonnes of the grain the province is likely to produce. Additionally, the inter-provincial smuggling of wheat from Punjab to Sindh would be now on the cards if federal and provincial governments stick to their respective prices.
Farmers warn of barring trucks from entering Sindh
Give Centre Dec 25 deadline to ban import of onions, tomatoes
HYDERABAD:
As the protests against import of tomatoes and onions from Iran and Afghanistan become more intense, the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) has given six days to the federal government to ban the imports.
From December 25, Sindh s farmers will block trucks carrying the two imported vegetables from entering the province, the participants a rally taken out by the SCA in Hyderabad warned on Saturday. If the federal government doesn t ban the imports and allow the export of the two vegetables, we will seal the borders of Sindh, barring trucks carrying imported tomatoes and potatoes from entering the province, said Zahid Hussain Bhurgari, the chamber s general secretary.
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