Citing the dire straits in which the agriculture sector has become plunged owing to reduced yield, lower crop prices and higher cost of cultivation, Sindh's farmers have demanded complete freedom to export their produce.
The Sindh Abadgar Board, an organisation striving for rights of agriculturists, on Sunday deplored that the existing government policies are putting the agro economy in a slump.
"The so-called deregulation policy started with wheat in March, 2024, after which the government didn't procure about seven million tons of wheat, creating a domino effect which allowed middlemen to exploit farmers," reads a statement issued after a meeting of the board in Hyderabad, which was presided by Mehmood Nawaz Shah.
The growers recalled that such a sudden stepping back by the government crashed the wheat price from Rs3,800 per maund in the open market to Rs2,200 per maund. "And this occurred against the backdrop of Rs3,450 per maund cost of production." The colossal loss in the previous harvest season has been estimated at around Rs900 billion.
According to the farmers, not only the same story was repeated in the wheat harvest season in 2025, the sugarcane sector also followed suit as the growers were made to sell their produce at a lower price while the refined sugar is now being sold at exorbitant rates to the public.
The meeting lamented that the government has been spending precious foreign exchange to import agricultural commodities and that too when the time of harvesting the same crops approached closer. "This has resulted in bleeding of the agricultural economy. Consequently, the uptake of fertilizers have reduced, the tractor sales have reduced, the price of diesel and pesticides continues to increase and with all this threat of climate change and extreme events looms large."
Recommendations
The SAB strongly called for unfettering exports of vegetables and fruits so that the farmers can get prices for their produce on the basis of international markets. They also demanded serious efforts to improve quality of seeds, to control inflationary prices of the inputs, and measures to help farmers improve per acre yields.
The farmers pointed out that the agricultural financing through the banks does not even meet 50% of the sector's requirement.
They suggested that if the government is sincere in increasing financing options for the sector, the current fixed asset collateral based financing ought to be replaced with the cash flow and revenue based agriculture financing.
Addressing the endemic problem of power outages and load shedding, ensuring timely supply of irrigation water, among other measures, were also demanded. Dr Bashir Nizamani, Dr Ali Reza Mirjat, Syed Nadeem Shah, Mohammed Aslam Mari and other representatives of the growers attended the meeting.
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