AFTER offering Fajr prayers in a local mosque, Mohammad Aziz comes back home, unties his cow and donkey, yokes them together in a ‘Panjali’ (yoke) and goes to his field. The plough is already lying there as it is difficult for him to bring it back home every day lifting it on his shoulder.
He has to till for many days to prepare a chunk of his land for cultivation. He ploughs his field five hours daily, from 5am to 10am in the scorching heat observing fast.
A tractor ploughs one acre in 20 minutes while it takes five days for Aziz to do the same job. His cow has grown old and is unable to stand with her fellow donkey throughout the day. Aziz owns another young cow but she had just delivered a calf and cannot be put to the rigours of ploughing.
Like Aziz there are many other poor farmers in Chakwal, who do not own tractors and are forced to till their fields using cattle and plough in this age of ‘modern technology’, which is witnessing innovations every day.
“I have to prepare my land for “Haari” (Rabi crops like wheat, mustard, gram etc) and I can’t afford the rent of a tractor,” he moans while wiping sweat from his forehead.
However in the sowing season, Aziz manages to cultivate his land with the help of a tractor by selling a few of his goats and calves. But the use even of a single bag of fertiliser remains a dream for him.
“The government is doing nothing for poor farmers like me and we are passing a tough time fraught with economic hardship and scores of other problems,” he says as he expresses his frustration.
Owing to rising price of diesel, the tractor owners have increased disproportionately the rent for their tractors, making it unaffordable for poor farmers. Currently a tractor owner charges Rs1200 for ploughing a field for one hour.
In that time it consumes five to six litres of fuel which costs Rs550 to 600. The tractor owners, on the other hand, say that they do not have any other means of income to meet the exigencies of life and hence cannot reduce tractor’s rent. “The government should pay subsidy on tractors and diesel,” argues Mohammad Faisal, a tractor owner.
Officials in the agriculture department are of the view that exploitation of poor farmers at the hands of tractor owners and traders cannot be done away without introducing a proper law and system.
“The Punjab government used to provide tractors at affordable rents to farmers but for the last few years the facility has been withdrawn adding to the woes of the poor farmers,” says a senior official in the agriculture department. “The facility should be restored forthwith particularly for those farmers who hail from poor areas like Chakwal, he maintains. Many poor farmers of Chakwal have urged the Chief Minister of Punjab for the provision of tractors at affordable rents. They have also demanded subsidy on seed and fertiliser.