SAB demands fixing sugarcane procurement rate at Rs 400 per maund.

HYDERABAD -- The Sindh Abadgar Board, a farmers' lobbying group, has expressed deep concern over the delay in draining flood water from Sindh's villages, providing wheat crop seeds to the affected farmers and starting the sugarcane crushing season. A meeting of the board, here on Sunday, chaired by its Vice President Dr Bashir Nizamani, warned that the country especially the province would have to cope with an acute shortage of wheat next year because the crop could not be sown on time. He cited inordinate delay in drainage of the flood water and procrastination in the distribution of free seeds of wheat among the flood-hit farmers as the reason. The farmers deplored that at a time when Sindh's agricultural economy had been destroyed by monsoon rains, Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PASMA) was deliberately not starting the purchase of sugarcane from the growers.

They said the PASMA had invented an excuse that since the mills already had tons of refined sugar stock and the government was not allowing its export, they did not feel any need to buy sugarcane. 'This act on part of the mills is tantamount to enmity with the farmers,' they said. They reiterated that the farmers could not sow wheat crops because they had still not begun cutting sugarcane from the fields. The SAB demanded fixing the sugarcane procurement rate at Rs 400 per maund.

They said the submerged land could not be brought under cultivation. They called for emergency...