PESHAWAR: Participants of a one-day dialogue held here on Monday complained about the successive governments’ indifference to small farmers and women agriculturists and demanded sufficient budgetary allocations for agriculture sector to support poor growers.

The dialogue on ‘post-budget dialogue with agriculture ministry’s officials and civil society organisations’ was organised by the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad in collaboration with the ActionAid Pakistan at a local hotel.

Besides farmers, civil society and media representatives, agricultural experts form Mansehra, Mardan, Swabi, Buner, Peshawar, Charsadda and other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were also in attendance.

Javed Maqbool of the agriculture department appreciated the suggestions of small farmers and said they should be examined for incorporation in the agriculture sector budget 2014-15.

He said the provincial government was making efforts to promote sustainable agriculture, especially organic farming and working on sustainable agriculture to ensure food security and resolve problems of small farmers.

The official of the agriculture department said agriculture had great importance in the annual budget because a sizeable population in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had dependence on it.

He said currently, a major portion of the budget was spent on non-developmental expenditure and therefore, small farmers and women had yet to get proper attention.

Javed Maqbool said the agriculture department had to carry out activities considering financial resources allocated for them.

He praised the provincial government for allocating Rs160 million during the current year for agriculture in addition to the routine budget, saying that showed the government’s interest in the promotion of agriculture sector.

Agriculture expert and former director general of agriculture department Allah Dad Khan shared information about the budget trend in agriculture sector over last five years and declared the tendency very low in agriculture sector.

He said major portion of the budget used to be non-developmental and therefore, small farmers and women growers weren’t financed.

Pakistan Kissan Ittehad provincial coordinator Liaquat Yousafzai blamed most problems of small farmers, including inactive farm service centres, marketing problems and lack of promotion of sustainable agriculture, on the unavailability of sufficient budget in agriculture sector.

He said small farmers had long been demanding increase in budget of agriculture sector, but to no avail. Liaquat Yousafzai said of the total area in the country, 67 per cent population belonged to farming and 85 percent of them were small farmers and women.

He suggested division of funds along justifiable basis to support members of low-income groups. ActionAid provincial programme officer Pervaiz Iqbal Ansari suggested the government allocate agriculture budget in consultation with farmers of all levels, saying this will help end injustices.

Other speakers, including CDO’s Ashfaq Ahmad and farmers Jamsher Khan, Israj Bibi, Sartaj Ahmad and Gulzar Khan, shared their experiences and said the government should offer generous support to farmers for their welfare.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014