28/01/2012
I used to live in Mirpurkhas, Sindh, and believe me it was not Paris nor it was Venice and neither it was Singapore but it was a developing city, peaceful and harmonious and one of the salient feature of that District was "Fruit Gardens and Farms" specifically "Mango Farms" and what we have in 2011! Lets have a look - KARACHI: Rains damaged about a two-third of the cotton areas in Mirpurkhas, the second largest cotton-growing district in the Sindh. The cotton crop is 70 percent at the dented stage. With only 30 percent of the current cotton crop rated fair or better as of this Friday, crop conditions were well behind where they were at this time last year. Out of six tehsils (sub-districts) of Mirpurkhas, considered rich among cotton belt, Jhudo, Kot Ghulam Muhammad, Digri and Sindhri were affected from recent rains. While Sanghar is the leading district countrywide, Mirpurkhas had been forecasted the second largest cotton producer district in Sindh this year. This year Mirpurkhas was estimated to increase production from 405,000 bales a year ago, official sources said. “The rains were severe, so irrigated acreage in most areas had emergence issues and now irrigated crops are suffering,” source said. Mirpurkhas planted 40,400 hectare of soft commodity this season, much of which has already been harmed by heavy showers. “We have been selling a maund of cottonseed at around Rs 2,500 for the last two month, while the prices elsewhere are higher,” a farmer said. Reference: Rain devastates third of Mirpurkhas cotton crop