Rains devastate date crop in Sukkur, Khairpur

SUKKUR: Fresh monsoon rains ruined 70 percent of the date production in Sukkur, making export impossible, said people associated with the business.
As per reports, 60 percent of Sukkur’s economy depends upon date crops. During the picking season, around thirty thousand labourers from Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Qambher-Shahdadkot come to Sukkur and Khairpur regions. Adjacent cities too bustle with business activities as the date picking season gains momentum, as local, national, and regional buyers of fresh and dry dates are accommodated in the different hotels.
Reports said that each and every citizen of Khairpur and Sukkur directly and indirectly becomes the beneficiary of date production. However, torrential rains have ruined the dates, which not only impacts growers negatively but also the commission agents and other subsidiaries.
Anjuman-e- Khajoor Mandi Khairpur Secretary and commission agent Muhammed Yaseen said usually 3 to 3.5 million bags (70kg/bag) or 5,450,000 maunds of dry dates are exported to India and Bangladesh, whereas two million maunds of fresh dates are exported to Canada, Japan, Germany, Malaysia, China, Australia, and US, earning millions of dollars. However, this year, due to the destruction caused by rains, fresh dates cannot be exported to the mentioned destinations. “We are in a position to export 2.2 million maunds of low quality dry dates to India and Bangladesh, as these two are the only ones who buy this type,” he added.
Date trader Nisar Malik said traders have lost millions of rupees due to advanced payments made to growers. “So now when the crop has been damaged by rain, the growers are not in a position to provide the any dates to the traders,” he said, adding that both traders and growers are the victims of rain.
Grower Shahid Hussain Phulpoto said in the absence of any comprehensive provincial policy and without financial protection, insurance, and loans, date growers were leading miserable lives. “Date season in Khairpur turns it into Dubai, but this year, growers are not even in a position to clear the dues of the hired helping hands,” Phulpoto disclosed, adding the growers are offered neither loans by agricultural and other micro financing banks nor any insurance policies. “No donors or government machinery comes forward to help us like they do the flood victims and others affected by natural disasters,” he added.
Complaining about the monopoly of the commission agents and lack of any price control, Phulpoto said they (commission agents) purchase fresh dates for Rs2,000-2,500 per maund and dry dates for Rs500-
Former Pakistan Railways deputy superintendent Altaf Hussain said the damaged crop will have far reaching consequences, including rise in poverty and poor law and order. He lamented the lack of any government policies for date growers. On one hand rain devastated the date crops and on the other flood has displaced thousands of people in Khairpur, Sukkur, and Ghotki. This means Kharif crops won’t be cultivated, further compounding the disaster and crippling the economy, he added.
Questioning the modality and effectiveness of the Khairpur Dates Exhibition, Hussain claimed the exhibitors failed to clinch any export orders. He said usually in Dubai and in the Middle East such exhibitions helped business growth and motivated exporters, whereas in Khairpur the measure was only cosmetic.
Meanwhile, Khawaja Sohail Mansoor, Chairman of National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence Production, said the World Bank promised Pakistan 70 percent assistance for Sindh growers to purchase materials for improving the quality of dates so they can access markets in other countries. He said growers must pay 30 percent and in this regard with the Sindh government’s assistance.
Exchanging views with growers at the Khairpur Deputy Commissioner’s office on Wednesday, he further said the Sindh government was keen to help the growers of dates in marketing their products to foreign markets.
Mansoor told growers that MNA Nafisa Shah Jillani had demanded the cold storage plant to preserve the fresh dates and dates factory in Khairpur. The government, he claimed was concentrating on resolving the issues faced by growers. It plans to not only promote their products nationally and internationally, but also to link them with other markets so growers earn more like the ones from Saudi Arabia, Cairo, and Dubai.
Former caretaker minister Ghulam Qasim Jiskani regretted the lack of cold storage facilities and research institutes in Khairpur. The world was focusing on ‘date nurseries’ and training growers to benefit 90 percent from them, whereas in Pakistan, growers were still following traditional methods. He called for the government to review its policy in this regard and to improve the irrigation system. Khairpur Deputy Commissioner said growers and the agricultural department will prepare a comprehensive mechanism to avail the opportunity offered by the World Bank to get used material for the preparation of dates. In this regard, he proposed fortnightly meetings to meet the target.