SWABI: Farmers have said that growing maize crop had become very expensive because expenditures on its cultivation had increased manifold during the last few years.

Talking to Dawn here, they said small farmers were especially in financial distress due to high input costs. They criticised the government’s agriculture policy, saying on one side it had been claimed by successive governments that agriculture was the backbone of the country’s economy, but on the other, the growers had altogether been ignored, forcing many of them to quit farming.

Gul Nabi Khan, a farmer from Maneri Bala village said: “The big issue is that our financial problem is increasing with the passage of time. There are no remedial measures and the financial help that we badly need from the government.”

The growers said rising prices of oil products had a far-reaching financial impact on them. They added they could no more irrigate their fields as they were unable to run water pumps due to an exorbitant rise in oil prices.

They lamented that the government had also failed to educate farmers about the climate change phenomenon, and to take measures to help them tackle adverse effects of changing weather patterns on their crops.

Safdar Khan, another farmer, said the government did not take steps for resolving problems of farmers as polices to uplift agriculture sector often benefited the landlords.

Khalid Khan, district president of Kisan Board, said costs of fertilisers, pesticides, labour and irrigation had increased massively during the last one decade. He said the rules had utterly failed to play their due role in strengthening the agriculture sector.

ADMISSIONS: Women University Swabi (WUS) is running a campaign to pursue girls to take admission in different disciplines taught in the varsity, officials said here.

They said they wanted to educate families of young girls about the importance of education and its positive impact on their lives.

The basic objective of the establishment of WUS was to impart quality knowledge to girls and enable them to play their role in strengthening their families and materialise the dream of progress and prosperity of the country.

The officials said they were also using the social media for encouraging the students to take admission in the varsity for getting higher education.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2023