LARKANA: Larkana Chamber of Agriculture (LCA) Monday demanded through a resolution passed in its meeting held in the city to ensure provision of irrigation water to Sindh without further loss of time.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of chambers president Syed Sirajul Oliya Rashdi and attended by Hussain Bux, Fida Hussain, Sarfraz Shah and others.
The chamber leaders demanded that the support price of agriculture commodities should be increased keeping in view the price hike of fertilizer and other agriculture inputs. They said that rates of diesel, electricity, mobil, oil, tractor, seeds, fertilizer, agricultural pesticides, tools, machinery and other connected goods had increased 200 to 250% in the last four years.
They said that it was the reason why the farmers did not plough fully to prepare the land, nor could they buy expensive seeds and fertilizers, or agricultural pesticides. They said that pesticides and irrigation inputs were so expensive that poor farmers had been forced to use less than 50% of it. The production of cotton, rice, sugarcane, oilseeds, vegetables and various fruits had decreased by 45 to 65%, they added.
The chamber office-bearers said that neither GDP would improve nor inflation would come down. They suggested that agriculture and livestock should be made an authority. The purchase price of cotton should be fixed at Rs7000 per 40 kg, wheat at Rs3,000 per 40 kg, and Basmati rice at Rs3,500 per 40 kg.
They said: “70 percent of the country’s population depends on agricultural production, if the farmer is happy, then the country will be happy.”