The government has waived Rs 365.7 million of agriculture loans in Sindh province during 2006-07 and 2007-08, the Sindh Assembly was informed on Monday. However, the government disbursed Rs 25.099 billion of loans to small farmers of the province during 2007, 2008 and 2009, said Sindh Agriculture Minister, Syed Ali Nawaz Shah while replying to question in the provincial assembly session.
The government had waived Rs 392.29 million agriculture loans in 2006-07 and Rs 4.55 million in 2007-08, he added. The amount disbursed to small farmers consist of farm sector and non-farm sector, he said adding that the government had given Rs 23.28 billion to farm sector and Rs 1.81 billion to non-farm sector during the last three fiscal years. He denied there had been any agreement between the Sindh government and Saudi Arabia for import of fertilizer in 2009. He also rejected the impression about drug crop cultivation in the province.
He apprised the house the government had spent Rs 505.086 million on agriculture research in the year 2009-10. He said the government had earmarked Rs 417.316 million in 2008-09 budget for agriculture research and spent Rs 395.373 million. Ali Nawaz said the Sindh government was implementing a scheme called replacement of earth moving machinery in Sindh at a cost of Rs 807.500 million. He added the government had purchased machinery and equipment of Rs 50 million as part of the scheme in 2009-10.
He said the Sindh government had launched a project for agriculture professional development centre in 2007-08, which became functional in 2008-09. The purpose of the centre was to arrange refresher training for agriculture officers and officials besides providing training to farmers in crop management skills, he said.
He claimed through the project some 40 field assistants, 20 crop instructors and 50 agriculture officers were given training. Conceding adulteration in seed and fertilizer provided to the province farmers, Ali Nawaz held the federal seed certified and registration department responsible to check the quality of seed in market. He said the seed inspectors had drawn 210 seed samples in 2009, of which 36 were declared substandard.