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PESHAWAR, May 2: Speakers at a seminar on Tuesday opposed the ‘Corporate Agriculture Farming (CAF)’ policy and said that multinational companies had planned it to grab resources of developing countries. The seminar on ‘Corporate farming and its adverse impacts’ was jointly organised by the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad, Community Development Organisation Swabi, and Sustainable Agriculture Action Group at the local press club.
Agriculture scientists and growers participating in the seminar called upon the government not to implement the CAF in order to ensure food and livelihood security of small farmers.
The speakers demanded that farming be protected from multinational companies, food and livelihood security of small farmers be ensured, rural areas be developed through a farm-to-market roads network, land reform be introduced and non-cultivable land be brought under plough.
They urged the government to ensure fair prices to farmers for their crops.
Provincial coordinator of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad Jan Nisar Khalil said: “If CAF is introduced in Pakistan, it will put the food security of about 150 million people at stake and small farmers will be most affected.”
He said the farmer community would launch a struggle to stop implementation of CAF throughout the country.
He said the government was bent upon exploiting the community and framing policies without its consultation.
Mr Khalil said the NWFP government had planned to lease thousands of acres of barren land in D.I. Khan and Mardan to China with free electricity but it was unwilling to grant subsidies to local farmers.
Mustafa Talpur of the Action Aid Pakistan said that incentives being offered to multinational and private companies under the CAF policy should be granted to small farmers aimed at boosting the growth.
Under the policy, he said, state land could be purchased or leased for about 100 years; there will be no customs duty on the import of agriculture machinery and financial institutions will allocate credit share for private companies interested in investing in CAF.
Shujaat Ali Khan from Sustainable Agriculture Action Group asked farmers to get united for their rights, saying the group would launch a nationwide campaign in collaboration with other like-minded groups to stop implementation of CAF.
Rehman Sher from and Mehnaz Ajmal also spoke.
MARKING SYSTEM OPPOSED: Introduction of central marking system in the Khyber Medical College by the University of Peshawar has caused unrest among students and teachers.
“We have conveyed to the vice-chancellor our demand to restore the old system that had been in place for 55 years,” said a teacher of the college.
He said a delegation of the college’s teachers had met the vice-chancellor after protest demonstrations held by the students against the new system last week.
Under the system, teachers will check the papers at the secrecy section of the university.
“The teachers also expressed apprehensions about allowing students of a private medical college to appear in examinations with the KMC’s students,” said a teacher.
A university official said the new system would ensure transparency in the checking of papers. He said the system was in place in most of the country’s medical colleges.
