LAHORE: The ongoing anti-smog crackdown may impede wheat sowing campaign in the rice belt as farmers are not clearing paddy stubble from their fields through manual or chemical means.
“We don’t have finances and tools other than applying the centuries old technique of burning the paddy crop leftovers for preparing our fields for next crop (wheat) in the small window available for both clearing remnants of the previous harvest and ploughing the land for next plantation,” says Abu Bakr, a farmer from Gujranwala district.
But the anti-smog squad of the provincial government is imposing heavy fines on the farmers who are getting rid of stubble through burning for timely preparations of lands for wheat sowing, he says.
Devoid of financial and technical resources, small farmers in the rice area are sitting idle at their homes, perplexed how to prepare their fields for the next crop, he adds.
Farmers lack resources to opt for alternative to stubble burning
If no step is taken by the government at the earliest, wheat plantation will at least be delayed if not missed and late sowing will lead to poor crop yield, he fears.
Endorsing his views, Kisan Board Pakistan central vice-president Amanullah Chattha regrets that the administration in rice-growing districts is harassing the farmers through heavy fines and instituting criminal cases against those who burn stubble at their fields for timely preparing them for wheat plantation.
This crackdown, he warns, is not only causing unrest among the farming community but will also lead to national food insecurity if wheat could not be sown in hundreds of thousands of acres of land.
He argues that the administrative action against the growers is uncalled for because the agriculture research institutions could not offer any alternative system or chemical to dispose of the paddy stubble.
He urges the government to refrain from penalising the farmers until and unless it comes up with an alternative method other than burning for getting rid of crop leftovers otherwise, he cautions, the unrest among the farming community may make it to take to the streets.
Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2022
