LARKANA, Feb 16: The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) has urged the provincial government to extend three-month interest-free loans to rice growers to help them sell damaged rice to African countries, Bangladesh and Iraq. SAB senior vice-president Gada Hussain Mahesar in a letter to the Sindh chief minister, agriculture minister and others concerned on Monday said that the countries had expressed their interest in buying the damaged rice at reasonable price.

Tenders to this effect were floated by different countries, he said, adding that it was right time for the government to assist growers in selling a huge quantity of rice damaged in recent rain.

It could only be possible when the Sindh government would provide interest-free loans to the growers at least for three months to procure rice from the market and sell it out to the interested countries, he said. A group, comprising rice millers and growers, must be formed to deal in this business honestly and properly, he said.

He said that Sindh annually produces about 2.4 million tons of rice and after meeting domestic demand exports some 1.4 million tons and earns handsome amount of foreign exchange.

He thanked Sindh government for giving remission in agriculture taxes to the growers.

He said expecting bumper rice crop, the growers hoped that they would be able to export more than 1.5 million tons of rice and earn $600 million. But right from harvesting the crop, the growers had met a catastrophe where due to world economic turmoil, the prices of all commodities kept sliding.

Vietnam, Thailand the other rice competitors of Pakistan in trade in the international market reduced the prices of rice whereas India had given subsidy to export rice and protected the interests of rice growers.

When the rice industry and growers were braving the situation, they faced a terrible situation in the shape of untimely rains in the rice belt of upper Sindh, he said.

The onslaught was so severe that about 70 per cent harvested rice crop was damaged which forced the growers to sell paddy at throwaway price, Mr Mahesar said.

He regretted that despite clear instructions, the Pakistan Agriculture Supply and Storage Corporation (PASSCO) came two months late in the market and with its faulty arrangements it could hardly procure 40,000 tons of rice.

Presently, he said, growers are compelled to sell paddy at the rate of Rs300 to 500 per 40 kilogram when the ministry of food and agriculture had fixed the rate at Rs700 per 40 kilogram.

Mr Mahesar said it was a matter of concern that due to heavy rainfall there is no paddy seed available for the coming Kharif season in Sindh. Calling Sindh Seed Corporation a corrupt corporation with poor performance, he regretted that irrelevant, incapable and inexperienced persons were heading the corporation and agriculture research institutes in Sindh with a result that they have no certified seeds of any variety nor the research institutes had produced new and better seed variety. He alleged that funds provided to the institutes were misused. He urged the government to ensure availability of 35,000 tons of certified paddy seed for the coming Kharif season at concessional rates and take steps to reform the agriculture institutes.

He called for upgrading and modernising the rice industry paired with improving cultivation system to achieve better prices in international market.

He called upon Sindh government for extending long-term interest-free loans for construction of warehouses and installation of paddy driers and parboiling plants as the demand for parboiled rice in international market was showing upward trends and India and Thailand, using the technology, had captured the international market.