The Sindh Abadgar Ittehad, a farmers’ lobbying group, has announced a protest demonstration against the government fixed support price of the sugarcane and wheat crops. According to a statement issued here on Saturday, Ittehad’s President Nawab Zubair Talpur chaired a meeting and announced the protest call.
Speaking on the occasion he said the provincial government had set Rs.202 per 40 kilograms rate for sugarcane and Rs.1,650 for the wheat crop.He argued that the government fixed price even hardly met the cost of cultivation being borne by the farmers. Talpur demanded Rs.300 per 40 kg price for sugarcane and Rs 2,000 per 40 kg rate for the wheat crop. He pointed out that the current shortage of both sugar and wheat had compelled the country to import both the commodities. He said a similar situation of shortage of wheat and sugar would appear again next year if the government did not give proper incentives to the farmers. “The farmers have begun to decide that they would cultivate only that much wheat which was needed for consumption of their family and relatives,” he said, contending that the farmers could not continue to cultivate the crops which keep causing them financial loss.
