The farming community has rejected Prime Minister's Farmers Relief Package, terming it an eyewash and a mere announcement for political gains before the local bodies and bye-elections. Representatives of different farmers associations told Business Recorder that even if the package is implemented, less than 20 percent of it would go to small farmers, while the remaining would go to landlords and industrialists.
Small farmers are facing more problem as input prices have been on the rise, including the price of fertiliser, energy and water, but they fail to increase their output by using conventional methods in the absence of modern technologies, they added.
There is nothing mentioned in the relief package how the amount will be transferred to small/substantial farmers. Successive governments kept announcing such packages for farmers but bulk of the amount always went into the pockets of big landlords and influential, said Major Mohammad Tariq (retired), President All Pakistan Kissan Ittehad.
According to the package, import duty on farm machinery has been reduced from 43 percent to 9 percent but it would help rich farmers who would import more machinery. Rich farmers will improve their yield and income, besides renting their machinery, but as far as small farmers are concerned, they will still remain unable to purchase machinery.
Tariq said there is no mechanism to ensure the transparent implementation of the package. It is not mentioned where the cash support would go to owners or tenants, majority of whom hold less than 12.5 acres of land holdings. Furthermore, big land-owners conduct land survey (Gardawari) on their names and not on tenants so when Patwari would start preparing lists of farmers, tenants automatically would be excluded from the list. The amount would directly go to the land-owners and tenants would still keep suffering.
He added that it would have been better if the government procured crops from the farmers with support prices through Trade Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) and Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Service Corporation (PASSCO). The government's direct intervention would help stabilise the market and small farmers would get ultimate benefits, he added.
Tariq said the benefits of subsidy on fertilisers would go directly to industrialists and dealers as the government has no control to regulate market prices. Chairman Pakistan Agri Forum Ibrahim Mughal termed the package impractical. Currently cotton is being sold at nominal prices and farmers are not getting any benefits from the package, said Mughal, adding that the package may create more problems for the government instead of giving any political gains.
The Kissan Board Pakistan has also rejected the relief package, saying mere Rs 5,000 cash support against each acre would not offer any support to the price hike-hit small growers. Sadiq Khan Khakwani, President Kissan Board said that the way the prices of agricultural inputs went up and agricultural produces went down, the support would achieve nothing. Farmers had urged the government to fix per maund price of rice at Rs 2,500 and cotton Rs 4,000, while currently basmati paddy was being purchased by rice millers at Rs 900 and cotton Rs 2,200 by cotton ginners. The government was aware of the factual situation but it tried to make fool of the farming community by announcing a lollypop, Khakwani said, adding that all the subsidies would benefit stock dealers and factories owners while small farmers would remain deprive. Kissan Board Gujranwala Division President Amanullah Chattha also rejected the package. He said the prime minister had assured Rs 5,000 per acre to the paddy growers after last year's flood but now the federal government has announced a subsidy of Rs 5,000 to growers owning not more than 12.5 acres.