ISLAMABAD, June 22: The Sustainable Agriculture Action Group (SAAG), an umbrella organization of 15 civil society bodies working for the rights of farmers, has expressed concerns over the introduction of corporate agriculture farming (CAF) in the country.
A statement issued by SAAG said: “It is not only a shock to small farmers but also for the civil society organizations.
“According to CAF, there will be no upper land ceiling and no labour laws for the people working on big farms.
“No duty will be charged on the agricultural equipment imported by the agricultural firms.
“It will give opportunity to transnational corporations (TNCs) and feudal lords to jump into and extract as much profit as they can while denying right to food or food security to the poor peasants.
The statement said, SAAG had always voiced the rights of vulnerable small farmers, who were being pushed to the wall by the government. In the past, there had been two attempts of land reforms by the government in order to curtail the power of feudal lords and land holders, it added.
It said: “But this government has reverted previous land reforms efforts by allowing any individual of firm to own as much land as one can.
According to SAAG, about 93 per cent of the agricultural community comprise of small farmers, who are already in a miserable state because of the policies of the government which are promoting corporate farming in the perspective of multilateral trading system in the arena of WTO.
