It has been rightly said that ‘A famer born in debts, grows in debts and dies in
debts’. This describes the plight of a Famer in Pakistan especially in Sindh. In the
recent years, our farmer has sustained heavy loss and deterioration due to
intervention of influential people of the region including incumbent stakeholders
in agriculture.
Our farmer who feeds the great chunk of the population of the country through
agriculture has been suffering from shortage of water for his crop. He borrows
almost everything including fertilizers, pesticides, groceries, medicine, etc on
credit and hopes to pay the dues with heavy interest with the yield of the
respective crop. But what if he couldn’t grow proper crop? This will shackle him
out and out and make him bankrupt.
Majority of the farmers live below the poverty line because the only source of
a farmer is crop. If he grows rich crop, he clears all his debts but if he cannot, he
will sustain menace of the poverty. This is because agriculture system which
constitutes larger sector of the economy about 19% of the total Gross Domestic
Product (GDP)— down from 53 percent in 1949-50— and employs 42-3% of the
labour force lags behind. Moreover, 67.5% of the country’s population living in
the rural areas is directly or indirectly dependent on the agriculture for its
livelihood.
Therefore, the farmers due to mismanagement of agricultural system face
gruesome problems. In addition to it, the landlord, stakeholder and influential
people steal the water through their private channels and canals and deprive the
support less peasants in crucial condition. If duly stern steps are not taken, the
famers will disintegrate, for they are the most vulnerable to extinct. The
government should appoint sincere irrigation officers who abstain from
corruption and don’t get involved in water theft. In short, the mechanism of the
government should be well organized and corruption free so that the famers
could cultivate abundantly and serve the country as well as themselves.
(-GM Jatoi (MA English) ([email protected]))