Package for farmers

The prime minister has announced a relief package for farmers in the light of declining commodity prices that have left the agriculture sector dealing with surplus stocks in some cases and big losses in most. Floods have not helped either, as farmers run from pillar to post to recover the money they have pumped in. The Rs341 billion relief package includes cash grants, subsidies, loan transfers and provisions that make it easy to obtain these loans. The package is directed at small farmers who hold up to 12.5 acres of land, but critics have been quick to label the relief as the PML-N government’s latest move to win the hearts of voters in rural areas, veiled in the form of an agricultural package. The reaction of different farmers’ associations has not been very positive either. What is interesting though is that this package had, partially, been announced earlier in the federal budget. Given this, the criticism of the package three months after part of it had already been made public seems somewhat ill-intended.

The agriculture sector posted a growth of 2.9 per cent in 2014-15 and falling commodity prices will not help its cause this fiscal year either. The global slump and lack of demand has left major crops rotting away. Pakistan, while producing cotton, wheat and rice as its major crops, has been left thinking about ways to tackle this issue. What is needed is the education of farmers regarding the use of better techniques to reduce losses, use of pesticides and innovative technology to increase yield. Farmer associations, on the other hand, want the government to announce a support price to guarantee a certain amount of return. The package itself, however, has not offered any of these. It is quite transparently a short-term measure that appeals to the rural community since it offers them ‘cash’ grants. The provision of making the procedure of obtaining loans easier is vaguely constructed as well. Most stakeholders haven’t bought into the package since they don’t believe this is the most constructive use of taxpayers’ money. The sector will continue to suffer since this latest measure, like most others, is a short-term one.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th,  2015.

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