LARKANA, Feb 9: The vice chairman of the Sindh Abadgar Board, Gada Hussain Mahisar, has said that Sindh will fail to achieve its target of wheat procurement in the current season.

Talking to this correspondent here on Tuesday, Mr Mahisar, who is also the president of the Sindh-Balochistan Rice Millers and Traders Association, said that acute shortage of irrigation water coupled with non-availability of seed and unexpected rise in the prices of agricultural inputs would leave a drastic impact on the yield of wheat, which would be about 30 to 40 per cent less that usual.

He regretted that farmers were forced to purchase urea fertilizers at Rs560 per bag instead of the fixed rate of Rs455, and that they had to cultivate wheat on residual moisture. Moreover, he said, the crop that required three irrigation episodes had hardly received one and remained what he called under-dosed in terms of fertilizer use.

Due to the rise in diesel rates, farmers who irrigated wheat through tube wells would hardly be able to irrigate the crop twice, he said, adding that the above elements would result in a decrease in the yield and the government would fail to achieve its procurement target.

He asserted that the government's claim in this connection was just eyewash, and that difficult days were ahead for those farmers who cultivated the crop on the left bank of the River Indus.

Unfortunately, he said, water released in the North Western Canal System for the crop was poisonous and had adversely affected the overall wheat harvest.

CLERKS: Clerks observed a hunger strike outside the press club here on Wednesday after a pen-down strike in the district, demanding withdrawal of transfer orders of 10 clerks.

Speaking on the occasion, leaders the All-Pakistan Clerks Association, Miskeen Bhutto, Safdar Mughal and others, claimed that the DCO had transferred the clerks of the education department without any reason. They said their protest would continue till the withdrawal of the transfer orders.

Leaders of different political parties, including the People's Party Parliamentarians, Sindh National Front and Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party, visited the hunger strike camp to support the protesters' demand.