LAHORE: As relief efforts being made by the public as well as private sectors are mostly focused on urban centres, the Covid-19 pandemic induced poverty is on the rise in rural areas of the province.

Punjab’s rural population, particularly the landless peasants and livestock farmers, is fast sliding down to destitution mainly because of falling prices of farm and livestock produces that used to be consumed by hospitality and tourism sectors. As both these sectors had been shut because of the lockdown imposed by the government to control coronavirus, the farmers have lost their incomes.

Another major factor in the rural financial crunch is closure of industrial units where a large chunk of rural population was employed.

According to farmers, the farm-gate price of milk has dropped to Rs30 per litre and of vegetables like tomatoes to Rs20 per kg, causing heavy losses to small growers.

The wheat growers are also perturbed as harvesting of their crop is affected not only because of curtailed movement of labour due to lockdown and reduced consumption in the wake of closure of eateries. They regret that the government has neither provided them gunny bags nor set up wheat procurement centres in many areas.

“Hundreds of thousands of litres of milk is failing to reach urban markets due to the lockdown, reduced duration of milk sale and shrinking consumption owing to closure of tea stalls. This is making farmers sell their milk at the rate as low as Rs30,” says Farooq Tariq, secretary general of the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee, a representative of small and landless peasants.

He claims that many small-scale poultry farmers have been compelled to destroy their bird stocks after failing to meet the feed expenses, while the chicken meat prices are also on the decline.

He says those engaged in contractual farming are also worried as they are finding it hard to pay the contract money to land owners and return the private loans they have taken for purchase of seed, fertilizers and pesticides.

Mr Tariq demands the government should convene a meeting of the representatives of small farmers at the earliest so that a relief package can be announced for the rural poor.

He fears that a delay in providing relief to these farmers may lead to social unrest and suicides among the rural population.

On the other hand, the wheat growers are not only hit by erratic weather, but also government inefficiency and apathy.

A survey by this correspondent of wheat fields in suburban areas of the Punjab capital reveals that harvesting is in full swing and the growers are employing machinery as well as manual labour to reap the crop at the earliest, keeping in view the start of Ramazan from Saturday.

They growers are waiting for gunny bags to pack wheat for indoor storage until the government launched its procurement campaign.

Failing to get jute bags, the growers are buying used polythene bags of sugar and even of fertilizers to pack and store the yield to save it from rains and windstorms that usually lash the area in May.

Liaquat Ali, a wheat grower of Bhaseen village, says he, like many other farmers, will store the 50-kg wheat bags at his outhouse and even in residential rooms in the village until he gets gunny bags and the wheat procurement drive is formally launched by the government.

Babar Bukhari, a progressive farmer from Attoki Awan village, also complains of non-provision of gunny bags by the government forcing growers to look out for alternatives.

He says that inclement weather and yellow rust attack had affected crop yield. But, he claims, damage to his crops was not that alarming as he had used bio-fertilizer.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2020