PESHAWAR: Farmers on Monday rejected the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Seed Bill 2014 by declaring it against their interests and warn they would agitate if the provincial government tried to get it passed in the provincial assembly.

The warning was issued during a news conference at Peshawar Press Club.

Farmers from different districts of the province attended the news conference, where provincial coordinator of Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PMKT) Tariq Mehmood and Executive Director of Roots for Equity Azra Talat Saeed were also in attendance.

Charsadda farmer Nasir Khan said if the proposed law was approved, growers would have to purchase seeds from registered dealers and companies to their suffering.

“I can produce around 12 varieties of different crops and vegetables and do not need imported seeds but the government intends to force me to purchase seeds from registered companies. The proposed law is against the farmers’ interests,” he said.

Altaf Hussain, a farmer from Chakdara in Dir, said the tabling of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Seed Bill, 2014 in the assembly was an effort to deprive farmers of their livelihood as they would have to stop producing seeds on their own and would have to depend on imported seeds.

Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PMKT) provincial coordinator Tariq Mehmood rejecting the bill and said the proposed legislation was meant to allow multinational companies to conduct business in the seed sector to restrict poor, small farmers to monopolistic seed corporations by holding patent rights of seeds.

He said the proposed seed law was a first step towards protecting the interests of multinational corporations, which wanted to control the livelihood of small farmers.

Mr Tariq said after enactment, the proposed seed law would increase food insecurity in the province, which was already vulnerable due to the declining agriculture production and supply of wheat produced there to Afghanistan.

He said the bill proposed that registered seed dealers and companies be allowed to undertake seeds-related commercial activities.

“Under the proposed law, anyone intending to do seeds business will have get themselves registered with the relevant authorities otherwise supply of misbranded seed of any variety, hybrid or species would not be allowed anywhere in the province,” he said.

The PMKT coordinator alleged that the proposed law protected the interests of the agro-chemical transnational corporations.

He said farmers in the province knew very well that field trials of genetically-modified corn were underway in Punjab and once that corn was approved, the entire countrywide corn seed sector would be inundated by it.

“Corn, a major staple of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, will become extremely expensive after the introduction of genetically-modified seeds and thus, causing massive food and fodder shortages,” he said.

Mr Tariq said biodiversity was threatened by introduction of the genetically-modified corn in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which would wipe out all traditional corn varieties for small farmers.

He said the enactment of the proposed law would adversely affect the growers’ ability to produce food.

The PMKT coordinator said the government should withdraw the bill and make laws, which protected the interests of small, poor farmers.

Dr Azra of the Roots for Equity said after the enactment of the proposed law, farmers would have to purchase seeds from the US, Australian and British companies.

He said on one hand, the government protested the US drone attacks but on the other, it supported the US.

“We, the farmers, will begin holding demonstrations across the province if the government goes ahead with the proposed legislation,” he said.