Returns on produce: Farmers protest for support prices raise

Agriculture minister says PM to announce relief package on Tuesday

LAHORE: Hundreds of Kissan Board and Kissan Raaj Party activists staged a protest demonstration at Charing Cross on Saturday for increase in the support price of various crops.

Kissan Board general secretary Malik Ramazan Rohari demanded that the government set a Rs1,200 support price for non-Basmati rice per 40 kilogrammes, Rs2,500 for Basmati rice, Rs250 for sugarcane, Rs4,000 for cotton and Rs1,800 for maize. He said farmers were unable to recover the cost of input given the low support prices.

The protesters called off the demonstration when Agriculture Minister Farrukh Javed told them that the prime minister would announce a relief package for them during a farmers’ convention in Islamabad on Tuesday.

“The minister has assured us that our demands would be met through the relief package,” Ramazan said.

Javed said the package would be the first of its kind in the country’s history. He said the federal and provincial governments needed to be on the same page to resolve problems faced by the farmers.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2015.