PESHAWAR: Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) has said that agriculture sector is on decline in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa owing to lack of sustainable policy.

Talking to journalists, interim president of Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture Haji Nazir Khan and senior members Haji Abdul Nabi and Mohammad Iqbal Khan criticised the government for they called its failure to pay heed to the issues of growers. They said that farmers in the province were facing multiple problems and were unable to afford even cultivation cost of different crops.

They expressed reservations over non-availability of quality seeds of various crops and urged government to ensure provision of certified seeds at reasonable price to the farmers.

The leaders of farmers said that tobacco growers were victims of the irresponsible attitude of government. They said that government failed to protect rights of tobacco growers, who were exploited by multinational companies.

They said that government should take interest in resolving the issues of farmers to make the province self-sufficient in production of crops and strengthen food security.

Haji Nazir Khan said that successive governments failed to resolve problems of farmers. He said that farmers had to buy uncertified seeds at high price from the market. “If quality seeds are provided to farmers, the yield will automatically increase otherwise crops will be affected by different diseases,” he added.

Mr Khan said that sub-standard seeds were sold in packs of certified bags that caused huge losses to farmers. “Uncertified seed causes various diseases to the crops and eventually results in decline in the yield,” he added.

He said that farmers spent a lot of money on growing tobacco but the profit was not in proportion to the cost of production as a cartel of multinational companies established their monopoly over the market and didn’t pay due price to the growers.

Iqbal Khan said that owners of sugar mills and contractors were meting out injustices to growers of sugar cane. He complained about what he called unjustified weighing process, fixation of price of the crop and delay in payment to growers. He demanded soft loans for farmers and easy transportation of the crop from farm to market.

Iqbal Khan urged the provincial government to convene a joint meeting of all organisations of growers to collect information and take steps to end their exploitation at the hands of owners of sugar mills and tobacco companies. He said that government should devise agriculture policy in consultation.

The leaders of farmers said that efforts were on to reorganise Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture. They said that recently meetings of growers were held in Swabi, Mardan and Malakand. The reorganisation process was meant to step up efforts for resolution of the issues of farmers, they added.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2017