Sindh Chamber Of Agriculture Advocates Subsidy For Sowing Sunflower To Save Foreign Exchange

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Sindh Chamber of Agriculture advocates subsidy for sowing sunflower to save foreign exchange

The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) on Saturday demanded the provincial government to provide Rs one billion subsidy for sowing sunflower, a less water-intensive crop, on 200,000 acres of land.

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Oct, 2018 ) :The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) on Saturday demanded the provincial government to provide Rs one billion subsidy for sowing sunflower, a less water-intensive crop, on 200,000 acres of land.

The demand was made at the weekly meeting of the SCA, which chaired by Vice President Nabi Bux Sathio, here at its office. The representatives of ICI Pakistan Limited Abdul Ghaffar Khanzada, Saleem Khanzada and others also attended the meeting and briefed the farmers about the sunflower crop.

The farmers claimed that if the provincial government took the initiative of promoting sunflower crop, it would provide up to Rs.100 billion earning to the economy besides meeting the local requirement for sunflower oil.

Nabi Bux Sathio emphasized on the need of growing such crops in the country which were not water intensive so that the harmful effects of the water shortage could be mitigated.

According to him, the country required 3.27 million ton sunflower oil every year but the country's farmers only contributed 0.24 million ton in the national demand. "Pakistan has to spend $ three billion to import the sunflower oil," he claimed, adding that the burden on the country's forex reserves could be relieved by locally cultivating the crop.

He asked the Sindh government to follow Punjab government and provide Rs.5,000 per acre subsidy for 200,000 acres in the province. "Punjab has already been providing this subsidy to the farmers for 2 years," he observed.

The SCA's Mir Abdul Kareem Talpur noted that the province was already dealing with shortage of water. "It was very timely for the provincial government to promote sunflower crop and provide subsidy so that the farmers could grow a crop which required less water," he said.

Khanzada briefed that the sunflower crop could be grown with less water, adding that the crop's yield was high and that it fetched a good rate from the market. He told that Punjab Government was providing subsidy for that crop while that province was also supporting the cultivation of sunflower crop through an awareness campaign.

"Due to shortage of sunflower crop, the sunflower oil had to be imported to meet the local requirement," he said, adding that the import burdened the country's dwindling foreign exchange reserves. Khanzada said his company was providing a range of services to facilitate the farmers.

The office bearers and members of SCA also attended the meeting.