PESHAWAR, May 8: Small farmers in the Frontier Province are facing hardships in the wake of high prices of insecticides and the tactics adopted by tobacco companies to fleece them, many farmers told Dawn.

“The prices of insecticides, fungicides and herbicides are so high that small farmers find it difficult to buy them to increase their produce. As a result, the produce in this part of the world has registered a drastic decrease since the levy of 15 per cent general sale tax on all sorts of insecticides some 10 months back,” said a farmer from Mardan district. According to him, non-availability of insecticides has reduced their production by almost 20-25 per cent.

The farmers said that all sorts of vegetables and Virginia tobacco needed to be sprayed with insecticides in order to save them from the impending attack of insects.

The levy of GST, they said had severely affected the tobacco-growers in Mansehra, Buner and Swab districts. The first happens to be the producer of finest tobacco Virginia throughout the world which are exported to European countries while Swabi is the main supplier of maize to the entire country.

Not only this but the GST has also affected farmers in Swabi, Peshawar, Swat, Dir, Chitral and Mardan districts needing fungicides for the protection of their orchards, maize and wheat crops. These areas are the main producers of apples and orange and supply the commodity to other parts of the country.

The farmers of these areas also complained of high prices of herbicides which they sprayed on their fields to protect wheat, maize, sugarcane and tobacco crops from being affected by all sorts of weeds. According to them, 80 per cent of the population of these areas was dependent on farming and the prices of insecticides played an important role in their survival.

The prices of these insecticides are high because 90 per cent of them are imported from the US, Holland, UK and China. There are some 40 registered companies only in NWFP supplying the stuff to some 4,000 outlets across the province. The only one government-run manufacturing firm, Stedec which is based in Karachi is manufacturing only a few items under the control of PCSIR.

The rest of the items are imported and only packing is done in Pakistan.

The farmers said that they had some cash crops like sugarcane, wheat and tobacco upon which they depended. Tobacco growing was allowed to them by the government as a part of government policy to eliminate the cultivation of poppy.

According to the farmers, the government had made it mandatory upon the cigarettes manufacturing companies to buy their produce so that the farmers could be given incentives. But lately these manufacturers have started black mail tactics with the farmers.

These companies provide the farmers with insecticides on loan basis on higher prices than the market and deduct the amount from them at source at the time of tobacco purchase. The farmers said they always remain indebted to these companies. They say that bulk of their produce go to the tobacco manufacturers in the head of insecticides which these companies provide them.

“If the farmers refuse to buy the insecticides from the manufacturers and buy it from the open market then the companies concerned do not buy their produce. So, we buy these items from them under duress,” said a Mansehra-based farmer. According to him, many farmers who are in formal agreement with these tobacco manufacturers are also running from pillar to post to get their money in time.

The farmers get their money from them after the lapse of one year or even more, he said, adding that the companies concerned give a specific target to each of the farmers by which they were bound to buy their produce and pay them the money as early as possible.

The farmers also argued that inflamed rates of electricity, uncertain weather conditions, high prices of seeds and insecticides have hit them hard and they are unable to survive. Nevertheless, the hard work they do, is unmatchable because they remain busy in their fields throughout the year.