Farmers threaten sit-ins over low support price-led losses

LAHORE: Farmers on Thursday threatened to stage sit-ins outside parliament on the eve of the budget session if they were not compensated for the losses suffered due to poor support prices of sugarcane, potato, rice, and cotton crops.

“Farmers… are facing huge losses as they failed to get due price for their produce,” said Khalid Mehmod Khokar, President Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) at farm leaders pre-budget seminar organized by Agriculture Journalists Association (AJA).

“The government should announce Rs30,000/acre compensation and fix minimum support price for all major crops on the pattern of neighboring countries.”

Demanding the damages, Khokhar regretted that ruling elite only provided monetary benefits to powerful sugar, textile, and other agriculture based industries, but was not ready to compensate farmers.

The farmers’ association official also urged the authorities to withdraw taxes on fertilisers to increase their off-take, which would eventually increase the crops.

He said permanent solution of farmers’ marketing related problems could be solved by introducing mechanism of minimum support price main crops like India did for safeguarding interest of farmers. He also demanded of the government to compensate farmers for the rising cost of pumping groundwater.

“Farmers are relying heavily on electricity and diesel-run tube wells due to persistent shortage of canal water, which increases cost of production manifold,” Khokhar said adding otherwise farmers would be left with no option but to launch protest demonstrations in Islamabad.

He also demanded of the government to strictly regulate import of cotton and milk powder by imposing hefty duties in addition to taking robust measures for ending water shortage by constructing reservoirs on war footing.

Sarfraz Khan, senior vice president Kissan Board Pakistan (KBP), said all political parties should come forward to adopt unanimous national development agenda by giving top priority to agriculture sector.

Khan emphasised that increase in farm production and exports and reduction of budget as well as current account deficits and poverty alleviation would only be possible if the agriculture became the engine of growth.

The KBP leader was of the view that farmers were facing the uphill task of making their both ends meet as agriculture sector is no more sustainable due to lack of financial viability.

He demanded of the government to announce at least two dams in the upcoming budget.

Khan said an aggressive as well as innovative approach was needed to convert subsistence-centric agriculture into market-oriented farming.

Ebad-ur-Rehman Khan, director Farmers Associates of Pakistan, said most of the subsidy schemes introduced by successive governments failed to yield required results owing to poor implementation.

“Benefiting farmers has never been the main goal of subsidy programs. The real beneficiaries of these schemes are more often than not fertiliser manufacturers, pesticide suppliers, and seed companies,” Khan said. He was also wary of lack of coherent approach among policy makers.

“Due to absence of synergy, farmers could not adapt to new techniques because of loopholes in government schemes,” he explained.