The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) complained that an artificial water shortage has been created in Phuleli and Pinyari canals due to the ongoing water rotation, resulting in an acute scarcity to irrigate crops on thousands of acres of land.
In a press statement issued here on Sunday after the SCA’s meeting, the farmers’ organization said the shortage was harming the wheat sowing.
Chairing the meeting, SCA Senior Vice President Syed Aijaz Nabi Shah said, ‘If the water discharge was not increased without further delay the farmers would face more difficulty in sowing of the wheat crop.
The meeting also complained that as the Sindh Seed Corporation remained dysfunctional the sale of spurious seed especially of the wheat crop was growing unchecked. The farmers said the spurious seed would cause low yield as well as would produce the wheat crop of low quality.
The meeting also expressed reservations over alleged black marketing of urea and DAP fertilizers as between Rs 100 to Rs 200 were being excessively charged on a bag. The meeting passed a resolution demanding action against the people involved in the sale of spurious seed and black marketing of the fertilizer while also calling for increasing the water flow in the canals.
The farmers from Karachi, Sukkur, Ghotki and Sanghar attended the meeting through the video link. The SCA’s office-bearers and members including Mohammad Khan Sarejo, Agha Khadim Hussain Shah, Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Abdullah Rafique, Murad Ali Nizamani, Ghulam Hussain Chachar and Mohammed Bakhsh Junejo, among others also attended the meeting.