SWABI, Oct 28: Speakers at the Kisan convention on Friday blamed the successive governments' failure to strengthen agriculture sector for the farmers' plight and the country's poor economic conditions.

They said the government's agricultural policies always favoured a few influential landlords and hurt hundreds of thousands of farmers ignoring the latter's huge contributions to the economy.

The speakers regretted that landlords not growers had benefited from agriculture loans offered by banks over the years and said wrong policies and wrong priorities of successive governments were to blame for the troubles of the agriculture sector, which was the backbone of the country's economy.

They urged policymakers to know as to why the common farmer was still poor despite growing cash crops like cotton, rice, sugarcane and tobacco.

Kisan Board (KB) had organised the convention, where farmers and their leaders showed up in large numbers from all over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Sardar Zafar Hassan, central president KB, told participants that it was strange that despite being an agrarian economy, Pakistan was unable to meet its wheat requirements and had been facing flour shortages, especially in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, for many years.

Accusing multinational companies of trying to deprive farmers of seeds, he warned that if that ever happened, then the agricultural produce would be negatively affected.

Rizwanullah, provincial president KB, said prices of fertilizers and pesticides had been increasing so rapidly that it had become difficult for poor farmers to manage their purchase from their limited resources. He said the market was flooded by fake pesticides, which harmed both crops and the farmers.

Abdul Samad, provincial general secretary KB, warned Pakistan Tobacco Board to increase tobacco prices in proportion to inflation rate, saying if that didn't happen, then growers would agitate.

Khalid Khan, district president KB, said the farmers' leaders had already gathered on a single platform vowing to run a full-fledge campaign against companies and PTB.

Later, participants unanimously adopted a resolution urging the government to give tobacco a crop status like rice and cotton.