Growers denounce arrest of farmers in Punjab

Say Sindh govt's procurement also marred by corruption

HYDERABAD:

The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB), an association of farmers, has denounced the arrest of their protesting counterparts in Punjab over the wheat procurement crisis, aggravated by imported wheat and consequent low prices for the local crop.

A meeting of the board in Hyderabad on Monday, presided by Mahmood Nawaz Shah, claimed that the wheat growers in Sindh have also suffered around Rs50 billion loss.

The board contended in a statement after the meeting that the provincial government's procurement, which is already around 20% of the province's produce, is marred by alleged corruption. The wheat output in Sindh in this season has been estimated at over four million metric tons, whereas, the provincial government will only buy 900,000 tons of wheat from the farmers.

The farmers complained that in the absence of a transparent procurement exercise and also owing to the imported wheat, the farmers are being offered hardly around Rs2,900 per maund against the government's rate of Rs4,000 per maund. "But there seem to be no buyers even at this rate [Rs2,900]," Shah observed. "There is a surplus wheat crisis in Pakistan."

The SAB observed that the prevailing crisis, which has triggered protests in many parts of the country, cannot be attributed to the surplus production. The situation cropped up due to mismanagement by the concerned government departments because of factors like incompetence, wrong reporting and malafide intentions.

The meeting condemned the government's attempt to defend $1 billion import of wheat which coincided with the bumper wheat harvest season. The farmers claimed that not only the governments' warehouses were well stocked with wheat supplies; but the private sector also had plenty of stocks. The SAB pointed out that the import was allowed when the government had estimated a bumper harvest of around 32 million tons in the country.

The board announced that it would take the wheat procurement issue to court. It warned that they may start a campaign to discourage farmers from growing wheat for the next season. The SAB called for allowing wheat export to salvage the farmers' losses and to balance the country's foreign exchange reserves.

Edible oil

The meeting deplored that Pakistan has been continuously squandering its foreign exchange reserves on importing edible oil when the country's agriculture can produce required sunflower crop if the government provided it the required support. The country imports edible oil worth around $3.5 billion.

The SAB believed this import bill could be drastically slashed by supporting local farmers to grow sunflowers. According to the board, the local farmers are being sold poor quality seed which has dropped their crop yield to seven to nine maunds while they were earlier producing between 15 to 20 maunds.

The farmers lamented that no government organization regulated the sale of quality seed or conducted research to come up with better seed varieties. The board also pointed out that on one hand the cost of cultivation has been constantly going up and on the other hand the price of oilseed had declined from Rs7,000 to Rs4,800 in 2023. The SAB asked the government to provide quality seed and ensure fair crop price to encourage farmers to grow these crops in order to reduce edible oil import.

The SAB's representatives also denounced what they described as poor water management, complaining that despite abundance in the Indus River system, the irrigation departments are enforcing rotation while failing to supply irrigation water to the tail-end areas. The farmers demanded that the choked drainage channels of Kotri Barrage should be cleared. Dr Bashir Nizamani, Syed Nadeem Shah, Mohammed Aslam Mari, Imran Bozdar, Malook Nizamani, Taha Memon, and other office bearers and members of the board attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2024.