SCA seeks end to spurious sale of seeds, water shortage

The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture has complained that shortage of water in tail-end areas of the irrigation networks and sale of spurious seeds and fertiliser as Sindh Seed Corporation remained dormant are affecting the farmers. A meeting of the SCA, chaired by its President Syed Nadeem Qamar here on Sunday, and attended by the farmers representatives from Karachi, Larkana, Ghotki, Sukkur and Sanghar through the video link, expressed these concerns.
The meeting also decried 5-year long delay in the appointment of Left Bank Canal Area Water Board Chairman by the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA). The farmers representatives complained that an engineered shortage of irrigation water was being created in the tail-end areas irrigated by the canals of the Sukkur Barrage.
They pointed out several distributaries that had dried up due to the water supply scarcity, adding that grown crops on thousands of acres were being damaged by the shortage.
The meeting expressed deep concern over the continuing delay in reanimating the moribund Sindh Seed Corporation pointing out an array of problems like the sale of substandard and spurious seed and a lack of research on the need varieties of the seeds. The growers at the meeting said that thousands of acres of land of the corporation was under illegal occupation of the influential persons, urging the Sindh government to take efforts to vacate the land and start research on need varieties of seeds on that land.
The farmers were also dismayed that a lack of regulation had enabled the manufacturers and dealers of the harmful pesticides to fleece the farmers who were made to spray their crops with the harmful substandard chemicals. The meeting complained that the position of the Left Bank Canals Area Water Board Chairman was vacant since 2011 and that the SIDA had taken no efforts to fill the vacant post on permanent basis.
The meeting passed a resolution demanding ending the rotation system of the water supply in the irrigation networks, reactivation of the Sindh Seed Corporation and appointment of the Water Board's Chairman.