Agricultural losses: Pabbi farmers lose potato seeds, demand compensation

Allege Khyber Cold Storage owner’s negligence resulted in seeds decay.


Hidayat Khan September 16, 2013
Nowshera and Peshawar division are among the largest producers of potatoes in the province. PHOTO: FILE

PESHAWAR:


Thousands of bags containing potato seeds stored to be sown in the next season have decayed in Khyber Cold Storage in Pabbi, Nowshera district.


Farmers have been staging a sit-in in front of the cold storage facility for three days demanding compensation for their loss. They claim they have approached the Pabbi police station and their local MPA to initiate action against the owner Sajif Shah, but no action has been taken as yet.



Hussain Muhammad, a farmer told The Express Tribune, “When we placed our seeds here for storage, the owner told us the facility was fully equipped with a generator, but when we returned six months later we found the seeds had rotted.”

“We are fully aware electricity outages occur but why did Shah promise us the cold storage had a generator installed when clearly it did not,” questioned Muhammad. He also lamented that neither the police nor the MPA took any action against the accused.

The sowing of the potato crop has already begun.  Nowshera and Peshawar division are among the largest producers of potatoes in the province.

Farmers usually prefer to buy high-quality potato seeds from different parts of Punjab, but due to the escalating costs of purchase and transportation, they have now switched to preserving seeds from their summer harvest to use in the next crop.



Muhammad said seeds available at the market can cost up to Rs1,500 per mound and a minimum of 16 mounds of seeds are required to plant one acre of a field. “Losing our seeds is a big setback for us, which is why we are seeking the provincial government’s help in getting Khyber Cold Storage to compensate the farmers,” he said.

Another farmer, Banaras Khan said, “We were content our seeds were in cold storage. If the facility’s power generation was not functioning they should have informed us and we would have arranged an alternative facility,” he stated. The sowing season was already here and they did not have the money required to purchase new seeds, he added.

Khan alleged the owners of the larger fields had struck a deal with the storage owner who will reimburse them so they do not initiate action against him. “Meanwhile, small farmers like us are left out in the cold,” he lamented.

Another farmer questioned if the cold storage’s cooling system was not working, how did it manage to supply ice to internally displaced persons’ camp all summer long. “Our items were left in the heat, while the owner was busy fulfilling his ice supplying contract with the camp’s management,” he alleged.

Shah was not available for comment. The facility’s manager, however, said they would do all that is in their power to compensate the farmers, but handing out millions of rupees to all farmers at one time is difficult.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th, 2013.

COMMENTS (1)

Sabih Shad | 10 years ago | Reply

No visit to the courts? Fixing a dispute like this is not the MPA's job, and neither the police's job without a court order.

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