‘Agriculture sector must get incentives to save rural economy’

HYDERABAD: Growers, sharecroppers, researchers, and lawyers on Wednesday demanded the government to provide incentives like easy access to banking loans to the agriculture sector, which was on the verge of collapse in Sindh.

They were at a dialogue on "How to regulate relationship between tenants and landlords: Understanding Sindh Tenancy Act", jointly organised by Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) and Rights Now Pakistan at Sindh Agricultural and Forestry Workers Coordinating Organization (SAFWCO) office, on Wednesday.

The purpose of the event was to understand the issues related to landlords and peasants. Senior lawyer advocate Ali Palh proposed to strengthen the relationship between natural partners, landlords and sharecroppers, saying it was the only way out to save the agriculture economy, which was a huge source of employment in the rural areas of Sindh.

Ali Palh said neither politicians, policy makers, legislators nor judiciary understand the Sindh Tenancy Act, which protects the rights of farmers.

Suleman G Abro of SAFWCO said agriculture does not enjoy importance within the government and policy makers. There is no insurance policy for the agriculture sector unlike the industries, which enjoy such a protection.

He said the entire agro-based industry has been neglected. “Agriculture products do not have proper prices, mentioned in policies. There are no incentives from the government, hence landlords and sharecroppers suffer,” he added. Suleman Abro said there was a strong group on top of the chain in agriculture, and haris, being at the lower rung, were being exploited with no access to justice.

Prof Muhammad Ismail Kumbhar of Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam proposed to design new policies with consultation of haris, small, medium and larger growers, lawyers and other stakeholders to save the social fabric and promote agriculture. He said a rural worker should be declared a ‘labour’, and like an industrial worker should have access to benefits.

Punhal Sario, a leading peasants’ rights activist, said the tenancy act was a valid law to protect the rights of peasants. “There are big jageerdars (landlords), possessing thousands of acres of lands,” he said, and added that the ecological zones and land fertility showed difference within land in terms of soil fertility and level of yield.

The law needed to be supported and implemented to save the rights of the peasants, he said. Ghulam Ali Leghari, a victim of the feudal system said though there were laws for the protection of haris, they were not being implemented. He rejected the claims of growers about investment in crop cultivation and said haris equally paid the cost.

Ishaq Mangrio, a senior journalist, said the landlords should understand that haris and the rural workforce were their strength to fight the war and get loans from banks and financial institutions.

He said industries benefitted because they followed the law and assisted the workforce. He said irony was that landlords even deprive farmers of their right to vote. Landlords should understand these issues.

Nabi Bux Sathio, general secretary of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, said the agriculture sector was going downward because of the mistrust between landlords and peasants. He said there was no exact data with the government to show how many haris were there in Sindh. “The government needs to know how many workers, haris were associated with agriculture.”

Mir Amanullah Talpur of Sindh Grower Alliance talking about the issue said the Tenancy Act 1950 was a true copy of the act designed during the British Raj in 1868. “Today it is not implementable because of the changes that have taken place in agriculture, such as the need for chemical fertiliser, pesticides and machinery, which earlier were not there,” he added.