Farmers form Sindh Growers Alliance

Growers have announced the formation of "Sindh Growers Alliance (SGA) to highlight issues being faced by them.Sindh Abadgar Action Committee convener Nawab Zubair Ahmed Talpur, a grower Ali A Palh advocate, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) information secretary Mir Abdul Karim, Mir Ghulam Mohammad Talpur and others at a press conference at Hyderabad Press Club on Thursday also announced that they would stage a token hunger strike outside the National Assembly in Islamabad from February 23 to 24 so that the Centre could pressurise Sindh government to end injustices with farmers in terms of rates of crops and acute shortage of water.They said that they organised a meeting of all growers in Kamboh Shaikh Tando Mohammad Khan on February 17 and decided to form Sindh Growers Alliance (SGA) to protect rights of growers and raise voice for them.They said that agriculture sector of Sindh was on the verge of destruction, but Sindh government went into hibernation and was paying no attention to real issues of growers which could cause a food security in days to come.They said that there were two main issues being faced by growers fixation of fair sugarcane price and acute water shortage because of closure of Rohri Canal following alleged project of Bahria Town in Nawabshah.They said that if Rohri canal was opened, its water could cause seepage in land of the project.They said that millions of acres of agricultural land were the worst affected because of closure of the canal. They said that closure of the canal took a heavy toll on almost entire lower Sindh including districts of Sindh, Hyderabad Matiari, Tando Allahyar, Badin, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar and others.They said that the food security could take place inupcoming days as many crops including wheat, banana, mango, vegetable including lady finger, tomato and others were being affected for want of water.They said that because of poor policy of irrigation department, Sindh got water for only three month a year.They said that Rohri Canal was closed from January 1 to January 25 because of annual closure for desilting, but it was not yet opened because of alleged project of Bahria Town.They said that Sindh government was still reluctant to issue a notification of sugarcane pricefor Rs 185 per maund again, while it issued a notification of Rs 172 per maund after an inordinate delay which was rejected by growers.They said that it was injustice that Sindh sugarcane was better in quality as compared to that of Punjab, they said that Punjab growers weregetting better price of the cane since the inception of the crushing season.They said that they were already fighting against unjust decision of Sindh government in the court of law in this regard.News SourceNews Collated byPAKISSAN.comCourtesy Business Recorder