Govt draws flak for 'leaving growers at mercy of middlemen'

The Sindh Abadgar Ittehad (SAI) has blamed the government for leaving farmers at the mercy of exploitative middlemen and agro industries by stopping its decades old practice of fixing support prices of crops.

A meeting of SAI, a lobbying group of farmers, in Hyderabad on Thursday, chaired by Nawab Zubair Ahmed Talpur, deplored that the government support has been withdrawn on the instructions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"Sugar mills are once again planning to create trouble for farmers," the meeting observed. They cautioned that the sugarcane growers will confront the same financial woes which the cotton and rice growers are presently facing.

Meanwhile, farmers in Badin and Sujawal districts, staged sit-ins condemning what they alleged is exploitation by the rice mills and the middlemen.

The group's meeting demanded the government to immediately fix the sugarcane procurement price at Rs500 per 40 kilograms.

The agriculturists also called for fixing the buying price of rice at Rs4,000 per 40 kg. "Citing moisture in rice, the mills are giving huge financial losses to the farmers by paying them a very low price," they said.

According to them, even the labour wages for unloading rice from vehicles, sent by the growers to the mills and warehouses, are being extracted from the farmers.

The meeting also warned that if the wheat procurement price is not set at Rs4,000 per 40 kg, the farmers will not sow the crop as the sowing season is starting.

The farmers reiterated their rejection for the proposal of construction of six more canals and dams to be fed by the Indus River. They reprimanded the provincial government for failing to supply irrigation water even when the Indus River and its canals are in high flows.