IN the wake of successive disasters in Sindh, growers are seeking government help for the loan write-off and debt rescheduling. They claim that they are not in a position to repay the loans. The government, so far, has not responded to their demand.

Last year when the super floods hit the Indus right bank areas, the growers demanded that loans should be written off as similar facility was offered in the past. In 2010 these farmers farmers, according to a rice grower Gada Hussain Mahesar, were informed by bank managements that loan recovery was suspended but they were not written off.

As a result of recent disaster triggered by monsoon rains, the growers have suffered enormous damages to their standing crops of cotton, sugarcane, vegetables and rice.

A delegation of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA), led by its president Dr Nadeem Qamar, had put forwarded this demand before Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in a meeting with him in Hyderabad. But the PM told the SCA delegation that he would discuss the matter with the federal finance ministry before taking any decision.

The SCA president sought the prime minister’s assistance so that loans of growers having below 50 acres should be written off and debs should be rescheduled in case of above 50 acres of landholdings.

“We are in a tight position; especially, the small farmers will take three years to clear their debts. But we need to be realistic, so we don’t say that loans of all farmers should be written off. We are hopeful to get a fair response from the government. We are even ready to pursue our proposals in Islamabad with the government,” says Qamar confidently.

Even otherwise growers don’t have an easy access to loans. Access to loans remains difficult because of the cumbersome bank procedures. They are required to produce different documents, difficult to obtain, from revenue officials. Farmers are harassed and it takes a long time before they are issued passbooks and other certificates like cultivation, evaluation and crop assessment.

Growers admit that they turn to pedhys just to avoid hassle of banking. Pedhy is a term used in local language for middlemen who offer loans to farmers in shape of inputs and buy their produce at cheaper rates to adjust the amount outstanding against them. For instance, growers say, if a middleman offers a bag of urea normally priced at Rs1,300 per bag at the time of sowing, he charges Rs1,600 at the time of harvest, making a profit of Rs300 as markup.

“Although I consider myself an influential landowner, I am still shunting between bank and revenue officials for last one month for obtaining loan,” adds Nadeem Shah, a grower from Matiari. “Middlemen have emerged in large numbers. Farmers are forced to get loans from them to repay the same with around 40 to 50 per cent mark-up,” he says.

The country’s agriculture is credit-starved, says Mehmood Nawaz Shah, General Secretary Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB). “If we talk about Sindh, it contributes around 25 per cent to Pakistan’s agriculture. But it gets 10 per cent of credit facility,” he argues. The Sindh-based growers demand that their share in credit should be raised to 25 per cent, he says. “Punjab gets 80 per cent of state-run Zarai Taraqiati Bank loans while the remaining 20 per cent is shared by three provinces,” he adds.

SAB president Abdul Majeed Nizamani asserts that growers are justified in their demand that their loans should be written off.

“The government should consider it seriously. In the past similar relaxation was given by government to industrial sector,” he says. Loans that were given till 2008 be rescheduled. Only the principal amount of loans should be recovered from growers. “It is the need of the hour that interest-free loans should be offered for next season to help growers recover from their present hardship,” Nizamani argues.