Britishers focused on the area’s development, building the Sukkur barrage around 1932 and creating three major canals on the barrage’s right side to feed Larkana and other areas from the mighty Indus.
Sindh’s 630 mills Out of 450 are located in the Larkana district, the urban areas are a hub of rice production. Larkana got the status of divisional headquarters in the late 80s but it was divided in 2004 and Kambar Shahdadkot was carved out as an independent district. The Larkana division is a hub of rice production with a large number of mills.
The division is known for rice cultivation and production. In Sindh, around 38 percent of the area remains under cultivation of the coarse variety or IRRI-6.
Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) says Pakistan is the world’s 11th largest rice producer, accounting for 8pc of the global rice trade. Production-wise, Sindh had 1,414,700 tonnes of clean rice previously (five years’ average of 2000-01 to 2004-05), which increased to 2,850,524 tonnes in 2017-18, indicating a 101.5pc increase in production.
Yield per ha in Sindh was 2,737 kg (five years’ average of 2000-01 to 2004-05) which reached to 3,441kgs in 2017-18, and 3,493kgs per ha (five years’ average i.e. Late Z A Bhutto had established the Dokri Rice Research Institute in Larkana to boost to rice production. With the upgradation of machinery in mills, at least 30,000 tonnes of rice production could be increased by offsetting post-harvest losses.
Larkana’s industrial sector mainly revolves around rice mills. “Broken ratio in rice during milling is around 45pc to 50pc due to seed quality,” says Mr Shaikh.
The Sindh government’s Sindh Enterprise Development Fund (SEDF) is struggling to promote mechanised farming in rice.
Original Link: https://www.dawn.com/news/1600791