Injustices are being perpetrated against farmers who are nourishing the nation
ISLAMABAD: We and our rulers often claim that ours is an agricultural country but whenever I think about farmers’ rights, land retention, access to capital, agricultural training and rural economic development for small farmers, it upsets me to note that our past successive and the present rulers have done nothing to help empower and strengthen farmers and farming communities throughout the country.
Injustices are being perpetrated against farmers who are nourishing the nation. They produce a variety of vegetables, fruits, grain and other edible items but remain hungry and thirsty. One fails to find any positive change in the living standards of this community. Pakistan’s agriculture sector is being destroyed systematically and those concerned who have a say in policy matters are partners in this crime against the farming community.
Let me record this truth that, like many others, farmers have neither rights nor do our ruling elites, who are plagued with corporate greed and corruption, intend to bring about the desired legislation to ensure their rights. A society which deprives its farmers of their agricultural and fundamental rights enshrined and guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan, come what may, cannot sustain and prosper.
Hashim Abro
Published in The Express Tribune, October 6th, 2016.
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