LAHORE, June 17: The farmers’ bodies on Tuesday took exception to the federal government’s ‘over-ambitious’ crop targets for the next year.

According to the budgetary document, the target for wheat crop is 20.5 million tons, which is 6.6 per cent higher than this year’s 19 million. Similarly, the cotton production is expected to go up by 3.8 per cent to 10.6 million bales, rice production to increase by 1.6 per cent — from 4.48 million tons this year to 4.55 million tons, Maize to go up from 1.76 million tons to 1.8 million tons and sugar-cane from 52 million to 52.5 million tons.

Farmers describe the announcement as an attempt by the government at creating delusions for the common man. “The government must make clear the basis of this optimism,” says Ibrahim Mughal of the Kissan Board Pakistan. After all, the planners must have made some calculations, and the government should better share them with people. Apparently, he maintained, the agriculture sector was on a downhill tumble. The water situation was not clear yet. The budgetary sum for the sector this year hardly provided room for optimism, he said.

Farooq Bajwa of the Farmers Associates Pakistan thinks that there are three ways to rid the sector of the mess it is in. The government can either reduce the prices of inputs, increase the support price of different crops or curtail the cost of capital. It has done nothing so far. If the government could provide the industry with capital at an interest rate of four to five per cent, then why it has failed to ensure the same facility for agriculture. The ADBP is still charging farmers between 16 to 18 per cent. In view of these factors, he said he wondered how the government expected the crop yield to increase.

“Neither the federal nor the provincial government has kept any substantial amount for research in the field of agriculture,” claims Hamid Malhi of the Punjab Water Council. Optimism would only have been justifiable had there been some breakthrough in research and development that could multiply the final yield. The research centres have not been able to come up with any new varieties. In fact they have failed to protect the existing verities from the most common of diseases, he said and added: “One does not know whether the government wants to find an escape route or is being misled by someone. However, neither of these possibilities augurs well for farmers and the government.”