March 17, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1429

LAHORE, March 16: The Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) says agriculture is losing its financial promise and farmers are constrained to sell their lands and opt for other means of livelihood.

In its general council meeting held here on Sunday, the board bemoaned the ever-increasing rates of inputs and ever-decreasing prices of outputs. Growers are in a bind of these two realities and can hardly sustain any more.

The government must realise that if 70 per cent population lose its means of livelihood, the country will find it hard to survive the ensuing social chaos. It should restore financial viability of the sector through policy interventions before it was too late. It can take a cue from the Indian government, which has recently written off over Rs6 trillion farmers loans, the board says.

On the other hand, the Pakistan government has written off Rs90 billion loans of its political lackeys but is not ready to facilitate farmers.

The board says even the interest rate is not being revised for farmers in spite of the repeated requests.

The poor farmers are being charged at the rate of 16 per cent, which is among the highest in the world. India charges five per cent on loans to farmers, China two per cent and the United States of America four per cent. Agriculture loans are given in single digit markup in most countries of the world, where interest rate is considered even higher. Heavy subsidies are in addition to these cheap loans. The European Union is providing over $1 billion per day and the US subsidies are just below this amount, the KBP says.

The council meeting says Pakistan has two unique distinctions in the world i.e. taxing the agriculture sector and leaving the agri trade to free market forces. Nowhere in the world agriculture has been taxed, as is the case in Pakistan.

It says no country has left the agri trade entirely to the market forces because the produce is open to gluts and shortages due to natural phenomena. Thus, the governments play a shock-absorbing role world over rather than leaving the sector at the mercy of profit-driven private sector. — Staff Reporter