Farmers demand budgetary support

Incessant rise in input costs should be controlled or compensated through price of commodities: SAB

KARACHI:

The Sindh Abadgar Board, a group lobbying for farmers' rights, has demanded from the federal and Sindh governments to consider 100 to 150 per cent increase in the cost of agricultural inputs while preparing the fiscal budget 2023-24.

The farmers' representatives at a meeting of the board in Hyderabad on Monday, chaired by its Vice President Mahmood Nawaz Shah, claimed that the cost of production for agriculture has gone up exponentially during the last 12 to 18 months.

"The incessant rise in the cost of inputs should either be controlled or compensated through the prices of the commodities," the SAB demanded in a statement issued after the meeting. The board although appreciated the government fixed prices of wheat, sugarcane and cotton crops, they claimed that ever-increasing cost of production made those prices barely viable.

The growers said that only 5.5% of the formal credit portfolio is allocated to agriculture sector and even within that scarce percentage the small and medium sized growers are the lowest beneficiaries.

The meeting also expressed concern over the rising import bill of pulses which has swelled to $820 million.

The meeting was attended by Syed Nadeem Shah. Azam Rind, Mohammed Aslam Mari, Imran Bozdar, Mohammed Umer Jamali, Taha Memon, Taha Abbassi, Syed Murad Shah and others.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2023.