THATTA, Oct 26: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture has expressed concern over the hoarding of sunflower seed during the Rabi season and stressed the need for coordinated efforts to avert financial losses to growers.

Talking to this correspondent on Tuesday, the district president of the SCA, Mr Shahzad Shah and office-bearers Siddique Thaheem and Mohammad Ali Shah said that majority of growers in Thatta and Badin districts had switched over to sunflower cultivation because of delays in the start of sugarcane crushing, low price of cane and water shortage for the last couple of years.

They said the menace of salinity, environmental variations and a lack of research were the other causes which compelled them to alternate crops.

They claimed that sunflower cultivation had been gaining popularity in the coastal belt because it required less water and generating Rs12,000 to Rs15,000 per acre.

Agriculture expert Mr Aijaz Ali Khawaja said the late sowing of paddy crop this year due to water scarcity and unbalanced use of fertilizers had caused an infestation of pest in the paddy crop.

"Moreover, five sugar mills have yet to clear outstanding dues of growers amounting to Rs164,560,130 for the year 2002-03".

"For that reason the growers opted for sunflower cultivation to cover the losses" he said.

The regional manager of the Pakistan Oilseed Development Board, Ansar Lund, said that during 2003-04, the PODB achieved 60,000 acres more cultivation of sunflower as compared to a target of 100,000 acres in the zone.

This year, a target of 200,000 acres has been set but owing to growing interest of growers, he believed, 100,000 acres more will be brought under sunflower cultivation.

Taking advantage of the situation, the SCA claimed, the profiteers and hoarders had become active for the last year.

A source said in Mirpur Bathoro taluka the traders had already procured sunflower seed in bulk from the approved dealers and hoarded it for the "right time".

It may be recalled that the ICI had imported 300 metric tons of seed only to be supplied to Thatta and Badin districts.

A total of 800 tons of sunflower seed has so far been imported by the ICI, Engro, Samsun and other companies but these consignments will not fulfil the requirements of Sindh.

The SCA claimed that the traders were also selling adulterated sunflower seed to gullible farmers.

When contacted, the state minister for agriculture, food and livestock, Mohammad Ali Malkani, said he had already directed the Federal Seed Certification and Registration department to establish an effective coordination with district governments, seed companies, dealers and farmers to minimize the grievances and help give a boost to the sunflower crop in the country to minimize the import of edible oil.

Adds Hyderabad Bureau: Sunflower crop is expected to be planted over 0.5 million acres in Sindh during the current sowing season which will continue up to December.

This was informed at a meeting of the crop management committee held in Karachi on Monday under the chairmanship of Agriculture Secretary Sabhago Khan Jatoi.

The secretary directed the seed companies to provide sunflower seed to growers in accordance with the quantity committed by them and ensure that higher prices were not charged.

Speaking on the occasion, Sindh Abadgar Board president Abdul Majeed Nizamani said the government should provide subsidy to sunflower growers on seed and machinery like seed drill, combined harvester and thresher for sunflower crop.

The committee decided that a proposal in this respect would be submitted to the provincial and federal governments.

In a meeting of the wheat crop management committee, it was informed that as per targets set by the federal committee on agriculture, wheat would be sown on 880,000 hectares and 22.57 lakh metric tons of wheat would be produced in Sindh during the current Rabi season.

A grow-more wheat campaign will be launched to educate farmers on the efficient use of irrigation water, land-levelling, sowing through drill machines, balanced use of fertilizers and control of weeds in the crop.

The meeting was informed that the department was providing seed-graders, zero tillage seed drills and laser levellers on subsidized rates to growers.

The meeting decided that a new scheme would be prepared for availability of 200 more seed graders in the province.