Failure of corn, cotton, rice crops: FBP urges govt to announce financial incentive package for growers

Farmers Bureau of Pakistan (FBP) demanding emergency in areas hit by the current heatwave has urged the government to document the losses incurred by the farmers due to failure of corn, cotton and rice crops and announce a financial incentive package.

FBP President Dr Zafar Hayyat talking to Business Recorder here on Friday asked the government to write off the interest loans extended to farmers by the public and private financial institutions, announce per acre financial assistance, special subsidy on fertilizer and seed for the next crops, waiving off Abiyana and Theka (lease) and soft or preferred rate loans for the next Rabi crop.

He said that Pakistani farmers have been badly hit by the impact of heatwave which started somewhere in the end of August and continued till mid of September. The south of Punjab faced this brunt more than the rest of the country, though whole of Pakistan was affected.

Especially cotton farmers are facing bad patch for the second consecutive years. Unfortunately no scientific impact analysis has been done so far, by the departments concerned and no measures or policies have been announced so far, he regretted.

Cotton suffered heavy losses due to heat wave and severe white fly infestation. Farmers aggressively tried to manage this pest but falling prices of cotton and no timely policy intervention by the government, discouraged them to spend more on their ailing crop, resulting in further loss to national cotton production. Lower cotton production is not going to hit the farmers alone, but it will have very devastating effect on the cotton and textile industry and, the overall economy of Pakistan in days to come. Our assessment is that cotton may not cross 10.5 million bales (170kg bale) this year. Maize another emerging crop in importance has also witnessed sever grain loss due to heat wave. Many corn farmers instead of harvesting it for the grains converted it to either silage or sold it as green fodder, which may not recover their cost of production.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019