IBA students cut out middlemen by helping farmers with cheap credit

Farmers are trained in modern agriculture techniques so they could increase their yields.

SUKKUR:

Tired of seeing generations of farmers toil under the burden of debt, all for miserly yields on their harvest, students of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Sukkur decided to take matters in their own hands.

Farmers in Sindh are not able to increase their yield per acre because, unlike their brethren in Punjab, they are not using modern farming methods, according to Umair Malik, a student of IBA Sukkur’s entrepreneurship programme and the head of the Zarai Otaq project. He is joined by fellow students Abdul Samad Sahito and Sachanand Solanki and his father, Nazir Ahmed Malik.

Under the Zarai Otaq project, farmers are provided raw materials like seeds and pesticides below market cost. Thus the project has dealt a blow to middlemen and traders, who not only gouge farmers, but also exact high interest rates if they are not able to pay the full price in one go.

Farmers Karam Bhambhro, Zahid Bux Bhambhro and Mir Hasan, who have agricultural lands in the Choondko area, say that they saw their output go up. “We also receive seeds and other materials at subsidised rates, which means that we are not exploited [by middlemen] anymore,” says Zahid Bux.

The IBA scheme, which was started four months ago, has now managed to garner the support of seven private commercial enterprises, who have collectively put in Rs50 million so far. These companies provide the agricultural raw materials and their field officers regularly train farmers on how to increase their harvest.

Umair says that 114 farmhouses, spread across 6,000 acres of land from Tajal to Rohri, have registered with Zarai Otaq so far. Six hundred customers buy material from them. “Farmers registered with Zarai Otaq are getting [up to] 80 maunds of cotton per acre, while others get [up to] 25 maunds per acre.” The motto for the project, says Umair, is “In nature we trust”.

IBA Sukkur recently organised an exhibition in Nara tehsil, Khairpur, where high yield cotton plants from all over the district were put on display.

Khairpur’s Prince Mehdi Raza has also leased 200 acres of land in the Pirano Patan area in Choondko to the project. The IBA Sukkur students have opened their own farm, which they have dubbed the Insan Dost Model Farm.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2012.