LARKANA, April 7: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) and other farmers’ organisations are demanding the government to fix, as early as possible, support price of wheat, paddy, and sugarcane.

A meeting was held in Naudero on Monday which discussed in detail the agriculture-related issues confronting the sector. Ghulam Serwar Soomro was the chief guest.

Participants recommended to the government to fix support price of wheat at Rs800 per 40kg, of paddy at Rs700 per 40kg, and of sugarcane at Rs80 per 40kg.

Representatives of the SCA, Sindh Abadgar Board, and Sindh Hari Abadgar Board demanded waiving off the sales tax and import duty on agriculture implements.

They urged the government to do away with the agriculture tax by introducing uniform water rates throughout the country at least coinciding with the existing water rate in the Punjab which was around Rs100 per acre on orchards.

The meeting expressed concern over the shortage of water in Sindh and Balochistan and demanded implementation of 1990 Water Apportionment Accord.The meeting held that increase in oil and electricity rates in quick succession had affected agriculture and called for a reasonable depreciation to boost farm output.

The meeting called for evolving hybrid seeds at domestic level with 50 per cent subsidy to push production. They also demanded relaxation in revenue taxes for people of flood-affected areas.

The chief of the Agriculture Policy Institute Islamabad said that he was undertaking this visit on the directives of Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani to assess and analyse the situation. The Prime Minister had desired formulating peasant-friendly policy and in this connection a meeting of the concerned organisations would be held in Islamabad on April 22, he said.