HYDERABAD, Dec 21: The Sindh Abadgar Board and the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture have drawn the attention of the government to the plight of rice growers who have been economically destroyed by heavy rains. They demanded an immediate survey of the rice-producing areas, declaration of the affected areas as a calamity-affected zone and rehabilitation of the growers.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Sunday, SAB president Abdul Majeed Nizamani said that this year the growers had produced a bumper rice crop in Jacobabad, Kashmore, Shikarpur, Larkana, Qambar, Dadu, Badin and Thatta districts of Sindh and two districts of Balochistan.

The total production of rice was expected at 2.8 million tons which would have fetched a huge amount of foreign exchange keeping in view the fact that although there was less production last year yet the government had earned $750 million through the export of rice, Mr Nizamani said.

However, he said, with the harvesting of the crop, the growers had to face insurmountable marketing problems notwithstanding the facts that the government had fixed minimum price of paddy at Rs700 per 40kg and directed the Pakistan Agriculture Supply and Storage Corporation and the Trading Corporation of Pakistan to purchase the rice.

Due to the lethargy of the organisations and indifferent attitude of the government, the rice growers were forced to sell the crop at low prices, Mr Nizamani said.

As if this was not enough, the nature was also unkind and due to heavy rains the harvested crop of rice was destroyed, he said. He added that whatever crop was purchased by the rice mills and traders was also badly affected.

He said that the Rabi crop of wheat and oilseeds had also been seriously affected and in this way, the growers had lost their Kharif and Rabi crops and had been ruined.

Answering a question, Mr Nizamani said that according to rough estimates, 700,000 tons of rice had been destroyed and the quality of remaining crop had been seriously affected.

Answering another question, he said that 10 sugar mills of lower Sindh were still lying closed and the government was taking no action against the mill owners.

He said that Rs1.10 billion of last year’s sugarcane crop was still outstanding against the sugar mills. The government had admitted that Rs800 million was outstanding against the sugar mills, he said and added that the minimum that the government could do was to ensure the payment of that amount.

He said that the government would have to import 1.68 million tons of sugar to meet the country’s requirement.

The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture at a meeting here on Sunday said that due to heavy rains, the rice growers had suffered losses to the tune of tens of millions of rupees. It demanded that the growers be exempted from payment of land revenue, water charges and agricultural loans and the rice growing areas be declared as calamity- hit areas.

The meeting said that a survey of the affected area should be conducted without delay and the growers should be compensated for their losses.

It pointed out that the districts of Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Dadu, Larkana, Khairpur and Badin were the worst sufferers. It appealed to the federal and Sindh and Balochistan governments to take notice of the devastations wreaked by recent heavy rains.

It demanded that the sugar mills be directed to clear dues of the sugarcane growers without any further loss of time and embankments of waterways be strengthened.The meeting was presided over by Mir Murad Ali Khan Talpur.