LAHORE: Claiming that agriculture is facing a disastrous situation, the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) has convened an ‘all-party conference’ on Wednesday in Islamabad for asking the government to “declare agriculture emergency” in the country.
According to PKI, it has prepared a charter of demands in consultation with all farmer bodies, including Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP), Kissan Board Pakistan and Sindh Abadgar Board. According to the charter, farmers want the government to declare agriculture emergency because prices of all commodities had crashed in the last three years, wiping off profitability, farmers resources and agricultural sustainability.
The crisis had also engulfed the inputs industry. Demand for goods and services had declined sharply in rural economy. As per a report of the Food and Agricultural Organisation, commodity prices would remain depressed in the next decade. All these factors justified declaration of agricultural emergency in the country, they demanded.
PKI convenes all-party conference over ‘disastrous situation’
The farmers also demand rationalisation of cost of production because aggressive taxation on inputs led to higher food prices. The cost of production of all crops had skyrocketed, while prices of output plummeted by 40pc to 50pc creating disconnect. As an immediate measure, all taxes should be withdrawn, duty free import of fertilisers, including urea, be allowed, electricity prices be slashed to Rs5 per unit, “green diesel” voucher scheme be launched as is the case in other countries for tractor and tube wells operation at 50pc per cent of the market price.
Other demands included minimum market price for wheat, paddy, sugarcane, cotton, maize, potato and oilseeds be announced immediately; agriculture trade with India, especially through land route, was not acceptable until a level-playing field was provided to farmers in the form of similar support and subsidies; free export of live animal, grains and horticulture products be allowed; dairy farmers, especially small and landless, were receiving approximately Rs40 per litre milk whereas their cost of production was above Rs100 per litre.
The charter mentioned this year had witnessed crop disasters in price and production. Cotton farmer had lost $1.7 billion in lost production and $480 million in price drop; potato growers had lost $1.5 billion in price collapse and paddy growers $350 million due to price manipulation.
Farmers were at the mercy of the trader when crop arrived in the market and a glut situation was created. This year, the price of paddy jumped by 60pc within days after the farmer sold it. This caused a loss of over Rs35 billion. Finally, development budget allocation for the sector should be increased from current 1pc to at least 20pc.
Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2016