January 02, 2009	Friday	Muharram 04, 1430

HYDERABAD, Jan 1: Speakers at a seminar held here on Thursday urged the government to develop a plan to control fast-spreading menace of salinity and waterlogging in the province, implement land reforms and give tenancy rights to poor peasants.

They said at the seminar on “Food Crisis in Pakistan: Micro Picture of Sindh Province” organised by the Sindh Agriculture and Forestry Workers Coordinating Organisation and Oxfam in collaboration with community development organisations that large-scale degradation of natural resources was the main cause of growing poverty in the province.

Ishaque Ahmed Bhutto said that unfortunately, no proper planning had been developed in the country since independence to implement land reforms with social justice.

He saw lack of political will as the main cause of food insecurity and said that rural people and peasants were migrating to cities, multiplying an already swelling army of the jobless.

He said that in Australia per hectare yield of wheat was 100 maunds while in Pakistan, especially in Sanghar, total yield stood at 35 maunds per hectare out of which cost of almost 20 maunds was spent on inputs used in crop cultivation, leaving only 15 for both farmers and land owners, he said.

Undoubtedly, increasing population might have put pressure on the country’s food resources and might be one of the reasons for food crisis because the production was not increasing at a par with increase population, hence the crisis, he said.

He said that agriculture land near cities and towns was being used for developing housing schemes and the area under cultivation was fast shrinking.

He suggested that the government should ensure land reforms under “Save the Land for Farmers” in rural areas to help increase food production and be able to face food crisis. The government should ensure land reforms by implementing pro-farmer policies, he said.

Yar Mohammad Leghari, member of Sindh Abadgar Board, said that though agriculture sector was the largest sector of the country, contributing more than 25 per cent to GDP and source of livelihood for more than 40 per cent of population labour, it faced neglect by the government.

He said the government was increasingly inclined towards industrial sector. It was a bad idea for the government to think so but it should not be at the cost of agriculture sector, he said.

Ghulam Mustafa Nagraj, an agriculture expert, emphasised the need for organic farming and utilisation of animal dung as natural fertiliser. Animal dung from Karachi dairy farms could be brought and used as fertiliser, he said.

Suleman G. Abro of SAFWCO urged the government to bring about agricultural reforms and said that 42 per cent land had been hit by salinity and waterloggedness in the province.