Hyderabad:

The Sindh Abadgar Board, a farmer’s lobby group, has evaluated the ongoing fiscal 2024-25 to be the worst performing year for the agricultural sector for over two decades. A board meeting in Hyderabad on Sunday, the chairman of Mahmood Nawaz Shah, pointed out the reasons behind the decrease in the sector and also proposed remedial measures.

Cultivates noted that climate change on the one hand made harmful effects on the sector, while on the other, they subandardly fertilizers, seeds and pesticides as well as a significant decrease in crop prices affected agriculture. Higher temperatures; Large rainfall and repeated cycles of drought, which also involves complex and severe pest and disease attacks have emerged as manifestations of global warming, farmers said.

Farmers expressed concern about rising cultivation costs due to increased water consumption and crop protection needs while the yield continues to decrease. They reported significant drops in the production of key crops such as cotton, wheat, rice and vegetables that criticized the government for its inaction.

They argued that while commodity prices have fallen, it has come to the expense of farmers’ incomes, which is crucial to maintaining the sector. They emphasized that the fall in crop speeds should have been matched with reduced input costs, which did not happen.

Farmers condemned the lack of state aid with reference to insufficient access to agricultural credit, the uncontrolled sale of counterfeit pesticides and low -quality seeds and weak expansion services.