LAHORE, June 2: Farmers’ bodies on Monday sought relief on prices of diesel, electricity, fertilizer and pesticides in the coming budget, increase in credit limit and improvement in technology and marketing service in the country.
Talking to Dawn, representatives of different farmers bodies maintained that lower wheat production in the province has cost growers over Rs11 billion because of “misplaced preferences” of the policy planners. If the government continued depending upon the same planners, it might end up in further chaos and farmers in deeper economic mess. To resolve the issue, farmers bodies should be made a part of consultation process for budget making, they added.
They identified 10 areas — water, seed, pesticide, fertilizer, diesel, electricity, technology and agriculture implements, credit line, marketing and tax — that needed special attention of policy makers.
An official of the Punjab Water Council stated that water sector had the most crucial factor in any agricultural policy planning. The government should come out with a clear-cut policy on the issue so that farmers know exactly what future held for the sector. At present, the government was concentrating on the sector but it needed to rearrange its policies. It should take decision about all available options in the country, come out with dates to start work on them and allocate funds for it, he insisted.
In addition to developing small dams and storages, it should plan to develop bigger ones (on river Indus), too. In the name of developing a consensus, it has already lost more than three decades and might lose more if no clear vision was developed, he said.
Besides developing dams, it should try to reduce the number of managers in water sector. At present, most of them seemed to be working to create chaos. There should be one department charged with clear duties, he insisted.
Brick-lining of water courses should also form another preferred area along with other water conservation techniques.
The budget should provide relief in import of machinery needed for the purpose, he demanded.
According to Pakistan Kissan Board officials, seed, fertilizer and pesticide should be given due importance in the budget. At present, farmers could not use quality seed because of high cost. It reduced per acre yield and hurt national economy. For this purpose, the seed industry should be given five-year tax holiday.
Similarly, fertilizer sector should be taken as another area that must be given due care. At present, urea was being produced more than the country’s requirement, but its price was too high for poor farmers to afford. It was because fertilizer companies were allowed exorbitant profits. The imposition of the general sales tax (GST) has taken them from out of their reach, he added.
The country needed at least two factories of phosphate and one potassium fertilizers. In addition to setting up these factories, the GST must be withdrawn for three years so that farmers could plan their crops with some stability in prices of inputs, he continued.
Like fertilizers, imposition of GST on pesticides has only made them unaffordable for farmers and affected the yield. All local companies in the field must be encouraged and foreign companies asked to shed their undue profits.
The Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP) is of the view that credit line, marketing and technology must form priority areas for the budget planners. Of the total Rs160 billion requirement of the sector, banks only cater to around Rs60 billion, with the rest of it coming from informal private sector. That is the point where the middleman comes into play and robs the farmers of his profits. If the government could spare extra money for farmers, it would not only bring them more profit but also set the farmers free of exploitative of middleman.
Most of the farmers are still using mediaeval methods and affecting the efficiency of the sector. Any tax relief in this sector could compensate the government with corresponding increase in national income from the sector.
The FAP insists that marketing crisis has damaged the sector most seriously. Farmers, whatever they manage to produce, cannot sell it properly because of poor marketing mechanism in the country. Enhancing the net of support price mechanism to other crops could provide some stay to crops like sunflower, canola, maize and vegetables. The government should ponder over the ways and means to reduce the role of middleman so that profit of farmers could be increased and ensured.
The Agriculture Chamber, however, thinks that tax regime of the sector also needs to be looked at closely. At present, abyana collection is suffering from many procedural hiccups and most it ends up in the pockets of corrupt officials. Flat rate in this regard could help the government. Of the total assessment of Rs2.5 billion, the government hardly collects around Rs1 billion. Flat rate could take the farmers out of discretion of corrupt officials and also help boost finances, he claimed.