Rain affected farmers to get fertilizers on priority

President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday advised the Sindh government and the National Fertilizer Corporation (NFC) to provide fertilizers to farmers on top priority in rain affected areas to ensure on time cultivation of Rabi crop.
Chairing a meeting on fertilizer requirement for Rabi crop at the Bilawal House, the president said that early supply of fertilizers would enable growers to sow their crops well in time. Sindh ministers Murad Ali Shah, Mir Nadir Khan Magsi, Jam Saifullah Dharejo, Ayaz Soomro, Sharjeel Memon, NFC Chairman Khalid Malik, heads of fertilizer companies and senior government officials were also present in the meeting.
Early this week, the president had directed the provincial government and the NFC to arrange locally produced fertilizers to farmers as the availability of imported fertilizers would take some more time. President Zardari had also directed to implement “Rabi Assistance Plan” without further delay in the rain affected areas.
The availability of seeds to the farmers be ensured so that sowing of Rabi crop in lower as well as upper Sindh could take place well in time. The Sindh Agriculture Department had proposed a package costing Rs 4.4 billion to be equally footed by the federal and the provincial governments for growers of flood/rain affected districts.
Under the package proposed by the Agriculture Department, wheat would be cultivated on an area of 1.100 million acres. Wheat seeds would be provided to the affected farmers at the rate of 50 kgs per acre with one bag of urea weighing 50 kg. The department said that the total requirement of wheat would be 55000 metric tons to cover the proposed area.
The Sindh government had already released Rs.1billion from its share in the first phase. The meeting was informed that initially 25% of the wheat seed equaling to 13,750 metric tons was being provided in the affected districts.