Timely cultivation of Rabi crops doubtful

Growers criticise Sindh government for delaying tactics, allege authorities of nepotism

The Sindh government has decided to provide wheat and mustard seeds worth seven billion rupees to the flood-affected farmers in a bid to support and encourage them for timely cultivation.

“We have to encourage the growers to prepare their flooded lands for the Rabi crops”, said the Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah while presiding over a meeting of the Agriculture Department which approved Rs7 billion for the provision of wheat and oil seeds for the growers.

However, on the other hand, the farmers’ associations in the province have expressed apprehensions that the scheme would be manipulated, as in the past, and the farmers would not get benefits out of this scheme as well. They said that the government had announced to support farmers at a time when the season of sowing mustard seeds was about to end in a week. The CM has directed his Advisor on Agriculture, Manzoor Wasan to develop a mechanism for the distribution of seeds, and present it within a week for approval.

Criticising the provincial government, the President Sindh Abadgar Ittehad (SAI), Nawab Zubair Talpur said, “The entire record of farmers and growers is available with the Revenue Department, so why are they collecting the lists of farmers through deputy commissioners across the province. This is the delaying tactic of the government”, he added.

Talpur claimed that the sowing of mustard seeds would be over in a week’s time and the government’s lengthy process of collecting lists would not give any benefit to the farmers of the mustard crop. He also said, “If the government does not distribute the seeds immediately, the season will end and this announcement by the government will not give any benefit to the farmers”.

The Senior Vice President of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA), Nabi Bux Sathio has claimed that only ten per cent of the announced allocation would be given away to farmers as the past clearly shows the farmers and growers never really got any benefits of such schemes of the government.

“Five per cent of the total allocated amount will be distributed based on political affiliations and another five per cent to farmers, while the remaining ninety per cent would go unaudited.”

Zubair Talpur also corroborated the statement of Nabi Bux Sathio and said that farmers have never received any benefits from such schemes in the past. Citing an example he said, “The government had announced a tractor scheme for the growers, and when they went to the banks to book the promised tractors, it transpired that all the tractors had already been booked by undisclosed persons”. And likewise, the scheme announced for the farmers this time would also be distributed among the government’s favourites,” he added.

Sharing his take on the scheme, Manzoor Wassan said that around 369,400 hectares of land were ready for wheat cultivation. He added that the growers would be provided wheat and oil seeds for cultivation in the ongoing season.

Highlighting the current post-flood situation in Sindh, SCA Vice President Nabi Bux Sathio has said the water is still accumulated in many areas of the province and the government has now failed to drain out the flood water. He said the farmers were trying to drain out water from their lands on a self-help basis to make them cultivable.

Commenting on the losses incurred by the flash floods during this year’s Monsoon, Zubair Talpur said the crops including cotton, banana, vegetables, mango and dates, had been destroyed; inflicting billions of rupees loss to the growers. He has urged the government to provide, to the small farmers, seeds of wheat and fertilizer without charging them any money.

He also warned that if these necessities are not provided, free of cost, to the agriculturists on war footing then they will not be able to cultivate wheat in time and tons of wheat would have to be imported next year. “The Revenue Department has the record of the deserving farmers and growers but the government, instead of distributing seeds and fertilizer among them, is collecting lists which are consuming a lot of time as the sowing season is drawing to a close within a week,” he regretted.