Farmers still await govt’s promised support

SAB says half of winter sowing season is over, govt yet to deliver its subsidised seed plan

HYDERABAD:

The rain and flood hit farmers expecting the government's financial support to restart cultivation of crops appear downcast as the government is yet to come up with the rehabilitation plan which will be followed by its execution.

A meeting of the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB), a group lobbying for farmers' rights, in Hyderabad on Monday expressed distress over what they considered as inordinate delay on part of the federal and Sindh governments.

The meeting, chaired by SAB's Vice President Mahmood Nawaz Shah, was attended by Dr Zulfiqar Yousfani, Syed Zain Shah, Malook Nizamani, Imran Bozdar, Taha Memon, Azam Rind and other office bearers and members. The farmers bemoaned that more than three months have passed since the end of the monsoon rains but they are still waiting to see what rehab measures the governments have planned to take.

They said the calamity devastated their crops, livestock, houses and other assets, leaving them 'high and dry'. The Sindh government had assured help to the farmers so that they could sow the winter crops but half of the sowing season was already over. The board urged the government to take immediate measures like waiving agricultural loans of small and medium farmers and offering them new interest free loans at the earliest.

The meeting expressed concern that the rain and flood water have still kept large tracts of land submerged with the irrigation authorities failing to materialise their promises of the dewatering.

They said on one hand lands are still inundated while on the other some sugar mills have still not begun their operations to allow the cane growers to cut their crops so that they can sow wheat and other crops.

The board pointed out that large swathes of Sindh's rural areas were still inundated, hampering the growers from sowing the winter crops.

According to the SAB, the livestock department is yet to cure the surviving animals by providing medicines and vaccination.

They complained that the cost of crop cultivation has been increasing by leaps and bounds, as the dealers of the agricultural inputs hoard and increased prices with impunity.

The board demanded a 25 per cent cut in the prices of the fertiliser because the farmers are unable to bear the inflationary cost of cultivating crops.

The board pointed out that the dealers were charging Rs500 to Rs700 over and above the fixed price of urea bags. They requested the Sindh government to ensure that urea is made available at the company notified rates and that stockpiling is stopped.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2022.