Rain-affected areas: President for prioritising fertiliser supply to farmers

President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday advised the Sindh Government and the National Fertiliser Corporation (NFC) to provide fertilisers to farmers on top priority in rain-affected areas to ensure on time cultivation of Rabi crop.
Chairing a meeting on fertiliser requirement for Rabi crop at Bilawal House here the President said that early supply of fertilisers would enable growers to sow their crops well in time.
Provincial ministers Murad Ali Shah, Mir Nadir Khan Magsi, Jam Saifullah Dharejo, Ayaz Soomro, Sharjeel Memon, Secretary to President Malik Asif Hayat, NFC Chairman Khalid Malik, heads of fertiliser companies and senior government officials were also present in the meeting.
It may be noted that the President had directed the provincial government and the NFC early this week to arrange locally produced fertilisers to farmers as the availability of imported fertilisers would take some more time. President Zardari also directed to implement "Rabi Assistance Plan" without further delay in the rain-affected areas and the availability of seeds to the farmers be ensured so that sowing of Rabi crop in lower as well as upper Sindh could take place well in time. The Agriculture Department Sindh proposed a package costing Rs 4.4 billion to be equally footed by the Federal and the Provincial Governments for growers of flood/rain-affected districts.
Under the package proposed by the Agriculture Department, wheat would be cultivated on an area of 1.100 million acres. Wheat seeds would be provided to the affected farmers at the rate of 50 kg per acre with one bag of urea weighing 50 kg. The Agriculture Department also informed that the total requirement of wheat would be 55,000 tonnes to cover the proposed area. The Sindh Government had already released Rs 1 billion from its share in the first phase. The meeting was informed that initially 25 percent of the wheat seed equalling to 13,750 tonnes was being provided in the affected districts.