LAHORE: Terming the current increase in diesel price a “suicide attack” on farming, the farmer bodies on Wednesday grilled the government for burdening the agriculture sector with additional Rs100 billion at the stroke of a pen.

The sector consumes over four billion litres of diesel in different processes of farming, and an increase of close to Rs4.64 per litre would take it closer to insolvency, they say.

The entire crop processing – from soil preparation and irrigation to harvesting – will become costlier, forcing the farmers to compromise on each stage – hitting the yield, quality and the income of farmers.

“The government is out to destroy agriculture sector, and, by extension, national economy and the country,” says Ibrahim Mughal of the AgriForum Pakistan.

Diesel and farming have almost become synonymous because of continued electricity and water crises. The farmers now have to pump water out of soil with diesel because there is no electricity to perform the job. On the other hand, the government is senselessly increasing price of diesel, making water costlier for farmers. This is in addition to all other processes -- from sowing to harvesting – that cannot be carried out without diesel, Mughal says.

With the fresh increase, Pakistan will emerge as the only country on the globe where the transportation cost of any commodity would be more than its cost of production, he says.

“If potatoes cost Rs10 per kilogram at the farm gate, they will cost another Rs20 per kg by the time they reach the consumer because of three tier transportation – from farm to nearby market, then to big cities and finally to common man.”

Tariq Bucha of the Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP) thinks that since growers are the biggest users of diesel, they will naturally be affected the most. Turning it into a national crisis is the fact that rural areas – the biggest affectees of the dieselprices – house around 70 per cent population. Thus, the current increase will hit an overwhelming majority hard andaggravate poverty.

“Currently, there is no concept of farming without diesel as national consumption shows. This gross increase will further tilt the terms of trade against farmers and hit the sector hard. If the imported DAP and urea enter the country at Gawadar or Karachi, the inland transportation will make them even costlier. The government only seems to  be ensuring poverty of farmers by insensitively increasing diesel prices,” Bucha says.

Sarfraz Ahmad Khan of the Kissan Board Pakistan claims that since farmers’ income has not increased, the costlier diesel means compromises on agronomical practices, quality and yield of agricultural produces. No one knows the logic behindthese periodic shocks that the government arranges for farmers.