Low production of rice expected

Apathy of the concerned authorities would result in low production of rice crop in Sindh province as the poverty-stricken growers have reportedly switched over to other crops in flood struck, it is learnt.
The situation has been conveyed to Chief Minister Sindh, Agriculture Minister and the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, however no pragmatic step has so far been taken to deal with the situation.
Experts of the agriculture department of the Sindh government had conducted a detailed survey in the flood hit areas recently and it was found that the growers had not cultivated rice crop, but had switched over to other crops, well-placed sources told Pakistan Today.
Interestingly, sources claimed that the Sindh government had banned cultivation of rice crop in the command areas of different canals of the Indus River citing shortage of
irrigation water as the major reason behind the ban.
Resultantly, growers of the Ghotki Feeder Canal, Rohri and Nara Canals could not cultivate rice crop and they preferred to cultivate other crops such as cotton, sugarcane etc, they added.
Besides, to enforce the ban, field officers of the irrigation department along with revenue and police officials were authorised to damage the standing crops if growers tried to cultivate rice in violation of the government’s decision, they said.
According to sources, the growers of major rice producing districts that included
Thatta, Dadu, Larkana, Qamber-Shahdadkot, Shikarpur, Kashmore-Kandhkot had faced serious financial losses as standing rice crop on million of acres had been washed by the gushing flood water last year.
Despite the fact the Sindh government had provided incentives to the affected growers but the growers could not cultivate the rice crop due to fear of more floods, this year, sources said.
According to rice production figures of 2010, it was pointed out that crop production was reduced by 50 per cent as compared to 2009 figures.
The production of rice crop was record at 12,30,304 metric ton in 2010, of which 42,542 metric tonnes Basmati, 919,364 metric tonnes Irri, 264,785 metric tonnes Hybrid and 3,613 metric tonnes other varieties.
However, the production of the crop recorded in 2009 stood at 24,22,347 metric tonnes out of which 103,195 metric tonnes was Basmati, 17,28176 metric tonnes Irri, 583,104 metric tonnes Hybrid and 7,872 metric tonnes production of other varieties.