Islamabad : (Parliament Times) Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Kissan Wing’s Central Information Secretary, Khalid Nawaz Sadhraich, highlighted the sorry state of Pakistan’s agricultural sector while talking to the FINANCIAL TIMES in an interview held here on Saturday. Khalid Nawaz Sadhraich while stating about the problems being faced by the farming community counted numerous glitches and demanded the government to resolve them at an earliest. He warned that the country’s food security is at grave risk if the government continues to ignore the plight of cultivators. He pointed out a devastating economic disconnect where the cost of every essential input including petrol, high-quality seeds, and fertilizers has skyrocketed, yet the government has fixed the wheat support price at a 3,500 rupees per maund. Sadhraich noted with concern that the support price announced three years ago was 3900 rupees per maund and despite the fact that overall production expenses for farmers have effectively doubled now but the government is reducing the support price. He argued that it is mathematically impossible for a farmer to survive when the prices of fuel and electricity for tube wells are rising uncontrollably while the return on their hard work shrinks or remains frozen. Beyond the pricing crisis, he detailed a host of other systemic problems, such as the lack of access to interest-free loans, the exploitation of small farmers by powerful middlemen, and the unavailability of certified seeds which leads to poor crop yields. He emphasized that the farming community is being pushed toward bankruptcy, and if their legitimate demands for fair pricing and subsidized inputs are not met immediately, farmers will be unable to sow future crops. Sadhraich mentioned that without a prosperous and supported farmer, the nation cannot expect a stable food supply, making this a matter of national survival rather than just an agricultural issue.
Responding to a question about the problems faced by farmers, Khalid Nawaz Sadhraich stated that three years ago, the wheat support price was 3,900 rupees per maund. He noted that as time passed and the cost of agricultural inputs increased, it was essential to raise the support price for wheat and other crops accordingly. However, this time the government has fixed the wheat support price at only 3,500 rupees per maund. Given the recent hike in petrol prices and the inflation of other agricultural inputs, he argued that the government should have set the support price at 5,500 rupees per maund. This massive gap between the cost of production and the actual income from crops is the primary cause of distress for the farming community. Khalid Nawaz further pointed out that in neighboring India, a 50kg bag of urea fertilizer is available to farmers for 900 rupees, whereas in Pakistan, the same bag costs 4,850 rupees and is still barely available. He explained that when a bag of urea was priced at 3,800 rupees, the wheat support price was set at 3,900 rupees per forty kilograms. Now, even though the price per bag of fertilizer has increased by 1,050 rupees, the support price, instead of increasing proportionally, has been reduced by 400 rupees per maund. He also highlighted that the prices of petrol and diesel have risen by 30 to 40 percent. Since petroleum products are used in agricultural machinery at every stage, from land preparation and sowing to harvesting and transporting the crop to the market, the cost of farming continues to climb. He questioned why the price of the farmer’s crop is going down while the cost of every other agricultural input is constantly rising, stating that this is the core issue they are raising before the government.
In response to a question, Khalid Nawaz Sadhraich stated that the slogan and firm belief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder Imran Khan is that a prosperous farmer means a prosperous Pakistan. He emphasized that this is not a political issue but a national one, noting that while Pakistan is an agricultural country, its farming community is falling into a state of misery. The farmer works hard in the fields all year round to grow crops that form the foundation of food security, yet this very foundation is being treated with injustice. Speaking on behalf of the farming community, he questioned why this unfairness persists and shared the plight of the cultivators who say that while they feed the nation by the grace of Allah, there is no one to look after them. He said farmers not only battle harsh weather conditions but also struggle against anti-farmer policies and attitudes. With the costs of petrol, fertilizer, seeds, and labor continuously rising, their produce is failing to provide a fair return on their investment and hard work. He clarified that farmers are not asking for charity or anything unreasonable; they simply want the government to provide facilities and a full return on their labor, similar to other countries, to strengthen the agricultural economy. Addressing another question, Khalid Nawaz Sadhraich explained that farmers are forced to sell their crops immediately at throwaway prices because they lack storage facilities and fear their harvest will spoil. The middleman mafia exploits this vulnerability, buying produce at rates even lower than the government-fixed support price. To ensure sustainable agricultural growth and solve these problems permanently, he stressed the need for a comprehensive and consistent agricultural policy. He demanded that the government must ensure any increase in production costs is automatically reflected in an increase in crop support prices. Additionally, he called for providing storage facilities to farmers and offering special subsidies on agricultural inputs specifically for small-scale cultivators.
