MUZAFFARGARH: Small farmers have demanded that the prime minister announce relief for them, saying that their crop was badly damaged by storm in April and the factors arising directly from the effects of Covid-19 pandemic besides the rust attack.

A large number of farmers gathered at Ghazi Ghat on Muzaffargarh-Dera Ghazi Khan Road near the wheat procurement centre on Monday and demonstrated for the compensation. They said their crop was damaged due to, firstly the lockdown enforcement in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, secondly the uncontrolled Yellow Rust attack and finally hailstorms and rains in the second week of April.

They said farmers were often called the backbone of Pakistan but the government ignored them in the recent historic Rs950 billion relief package.

They demanded the prime minister announce a relief package for farmers and ask his Tiger Force to start a survey.

Farmers Malik Naeem Akhtar and Rai Shahid said when the crop was at the critical final stage, the lockdown made it impossible for them to arrange pesticide for the crop, and necessary tools to irrigate their crops with tubewell. The government closed all shops which gave a free hand to Yellow Rust to ruin the crop. They said it rained four times from the last week of March till the second week of April while hailstorm also inflicted irreparable loss.

“Being Pakistani, we can only appeal to Prime Minister Imran Khan to include small farmers in the relief package,” Mr Shahid said.

Other farmers said they appreciated the government for helping families under the BISP or Ehsaas programme and cash relief for those who lost jobs due to the pandemic disease. They said the IMF and the World Bank had also accorded relief to Pakistan.

Mansoor Ahmad and Khan Mohammad, farm tenants, demanded the prime minister should also give a package for tenants. They said they have to pay the agreed lease amount to the land owners but this time they were simply unable to pay the agreed amount to landlords, and hence the contract terminated.

Dawn learnt the district administration was trying hard to meet the target of wheat procurement and on a daily basis the teams were raiding places. On Sunday evening, the police seized a large quantity of wheat which was being transported to Balochistan. Revenue officials were also busy checking data on land and cultivation of wheat this season. They contacted farmers and appealed them to sell their yield to the procurement centres.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2020