Noor Khan Bakhrani Tangwani
Ours is a country where farmers and local growers are always facing hard financial exploiting. The helpless farmers and small growers of Sindh are being looted by shopkeepers and dealer mafias who sell urea and DAP fertilizers at very high rates. The dealers and shopkeepers are openly violating the government’s fixed rates of fertilizers. Dealers and shopkeepers in collusion with corrupt district administration are fleecing the small growers through hoarding, profiting and showing artificial unavailability of urea and DAP in the local market and then sell on black by charing Rs2700 per bag of urea instead of Rs1768 fixed rate of govt. Reportedly each bag of DAP is being sold out at Rs10000 in local market due to which growers are facing a plethora of hardships. Local growers protest and express great concern over inept performance of their local authorities for giving a free hand to unscrupulous profiteers but all in vain. On the other hand the farmers and small growers of Sindh are always paid less for their products but are charged with double prices of chemical fertilizers, urea, DAP, insecticides, pesticides and hybrid seeds. These days paddy growers are paid cheaper rate in local market which adds to their hardships and miseries. The grievances of our farmers and small growers of Sindh province are never redressed. The financial exploiting of farmers in Sindh has been a major issue since independence. This is why the poor are getting proper and the rich are getting richer. The rate of per acre ploughing of field, harvesting and threshing of crops are always on rise. Fraudulently, sometimes the farmers are deceived by dealer mafias in different ways like selling substandard counterfeit seed, insecticides, pesticides, fertilizers and DAP which causes loss of billions of rupees per annum for production of paddy and wheat. The life style of our farmer doesn’t change but day by day shopkeepers and dealer mafias are being rich over night. The farmer class of Sindh even today passes a hard life and hardly earns two times meals. Through my today’s column in this esteemed newspaper, I would like to draw the kind attention of Deputy Commissioner Kashmore, Assistant Commissioner and concerned local authorities to take notice of unabated black marketing of urea, DAP fertilizers in district Kashmore and take stern action against the hoarder, profiteer mafias to ensure the availability and sale of urea and DAP fertilizers as per government’s approved rates so that growers can heave a sigh of relief.
