President Asif Ali Zardari directed the Sindh government and National Fertilizer Corporation (NFC) on Saturday to ensure that fertilisers are supplied to farmers in the rain- and flood-affected areas at the earliest for the scheduled cultivation of Rabi season crops.
“Early supply of fertilisers will enable growers to sow their crops in time,” he said while chairing a meeting at Bilawal House, according to an official handout.
Provincial ministers Murad Ali Shah, Mir Nadir Khan Magsi, Jam Saifullah Dharejo, Ayaz Soomro, Sharjeel Memon, secretary to President Malik Asif Hayat, NFC Chairman Khalid Malik, heads of fertiliser companies and senior government officials were also present in the meeting.
Zardari demanded swift implementation of the ‘Rabi Assistance Plan’ in the rainaffected areas without any further delay and instructed speedy provision of seeds to farmers so that sowing of Rabi crops in lower and upper parts of the province can start in time.
Earlier this week, the president had directed the provincial government and NFC to arrange locally produced fertilisers for farmers as the availability of imported fertilisers would take time.
The provincial Agriculture Department has proposed a package costing Rs 4.4 billion for the growers of rain- and flood-hit districts that would equally borne by the federal and provincial governments Under the package,
wheat would be cultivated on an area of 1.100 million acres whereas wheat seeds would be provided to the affected
farmers at the rate of Rs 50 per acre with one bag of urea weighing 50 kg.
The Agriculture Department estimated the total requirement of wheat to be 55,000 metric tonnes to cover the proposed area for which the Sindh government has already released Rs 1 billion from its share in the first phase.
It was also informed during the meeting that 25 percent of the wheat seed equalling to 13,750 metric tonnes is initially being provided in the affected districts.
