LAHORE, Feb 11: The government can earn Rs538 million by privatizing the Maize and Millets Research Institute, managers of the institute’s farms have claimed.

Talking to Dawn, they said that the government was losing Rs15.272 million annually because of problems like tenants’ petitions against the farm management, their non-compliance with the cash rent system, unpaid dues, illegal encroachments and large number of milch animals.

“Tenants have been in litigation with the farm management since the early 90s, claiming that they are entitled to a 60 per cent share and the management only to 40 per cent,” the managers said. These writ petitions are being contested and have had different effects at different times. For example, the high court decided a writ in favour of the tenants in 1994. The government was constrained to return 10 per cent expenditures incurred on fertilisers and insecticides. It returned Rs11 million to the tenants.

According to the managers who are Punjab government officials, the tenants have also been resisting the cash rent system (patanama) because of the longevity of their tenancy, claiming that they have inherited the land from their forefathers and that no one could change the agreement unilaterally. The tenants are entitled to keep only one pair of bullocks and one buffalo, but they are keeping a large number of animals, and the seed production farms have become more of livestock farms.

The tenants, who are supposed to live on farms, have encroached on the land for construction of houses and reduced the number of acres utilized for farming.

The farms include 64/5-L (Yousufwala), 86/9-L (Sahiwal) and 114/12-L (Iqbalnagar). The managers claim that the tenants owe Rs5.1 million to the government. Repeated notices have failed to elicit any response.

The farm management claims that all the tenants are encroaching on land and selling it to outsiders at a very high rate. Some of the tenants have even encroached on the area in front of the farm along the GT Road.

They also lament the fact that income from these farms have not increased in proportion to government’s investment. During 1996-97, the government’s income from these three farms was Rs6 million — Rs2.8 million from Yousafwala, Rs1.1 million from Sahiwal and Rs2.1 million from Iqbalnagar. Next year, the income went up to Rs7.6 million. The average per acre income during these two years was Rs2,259 and 2,832 against an expenditure of Rs1,689 and 2,008. Thus the net profit from the farm was Rs573 and 824 per acre during these years. This despite the fact that the government had invested Rs4.538 million in these farms. The government formed a committee of experts to look into the causes of low income, which concluded that it was due to a large number of tenants, lack of irrigation water, lack of input resources and operational facilities, pilferage of the produce and litigation with tenants.

In view of the crisis, the management said that the government could take a number of steps to improve the situation, one of which was to privatize the farms at the market rate. If the total area (2,690 acres) is rented out at the rate of Rs6,500 per acre, the government can earn Rs17 million instead of 2.2 million. However, if the land is sold out at the rate of Rs200,000 per acre, the government could make Rs538 million.