Growers' body warns of food insecurity if farmland remains under floodwaters.

HYDERABAD -- Leaders of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) expressed concern over delay in the issuance of a notification for fixing wheat support price at Rs4,000 per 40kg and warned if drastic measures were not taken to save flood-hit agriculture sector it could lead to food insecurity.

The chamber's president Miran Mohammad Shah and general secretary Zahid Bhurgari told a press conference after the SCA meeting here on Saturday that farmers should be consulted over rehabilitation work of Sukkur barrage.

They said that Sindh's share in prime minister's assistance package for flood-hit areas should be increased as the province's farm sector was the worst hit from last year's rainfall and floods in which standing crops suffered billions of rupees losses.

The chamber's president regretted the prime minister had announced relief package and Sindh government Rs5,000 per acre support for farmers but none of the reliefs had materialised so far.

He said that farmers wondered as to where had all the international aid for calamity-hit people gone after floods. The demand was gaining strength that utilization of this aid should be shared with people, he said.

He maintained that Sindh government had fixed wheat sowing target at three million acres despite the fact that vast areas in Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Naushahro Feroze, Dadu and other districts were still under water.

Shah said that wheat had been sown on around 2.1m acres of farmland. Last year, there was a deficit of 18m tonnes in production as only 26.2m tonnes grain was produced against a requirement of 28m tonnes, he said.

He said that Sindh government had fixed Rs4,000 per 40kg wheat support price three months back but its notification had not been issued so far.

He called for the issuance of this notification to end unrest among growers. If it was...