PESHAWAR, Oct 20: The participants of a seminar demanded of the government to allot state land to small, landless and women farmers to ensure food security and overcome the problems being faced by small farmers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The seminar titled ‘Food security and role of government’ was organised jointly by Pakistan Kissan Ittehad, Action Aid Pakistan and Citizen Rights and Sustainable Development here on Saturday.

The small farmers, including men and women, from different districts of the province presented a charter of demand and proposed adopting a sustainable agriculture policy. Mohammad Khaliq from Action Aid discussed the importance of food security and role of government in that regard. He stressed the need for adopting a food security-oriented agriculture policy.

Food security at local and national level would be ensured if government focused on household food security, Mr Khaliq added.

Jamsher Khan, Pakistan Kissan Ittehad’s representative from Buner, said that government was capable to secure food of poor and small farmers. He said that there was a dire need to improve food storage facilities in the province. It would provide food sustainability in case of emergencies as the province was prone to disasters and conflicts, he added.

A women farmer from Swabi shared her organic farming experience which made her agriculture practice more sustainable and demanded of the government to allot land to women, who could contribute effectively in household food security. She said that there was hardly any presence of women employees in the agriculture and other related departments.

A women youth activist criticised government for ignoring the role of youth in agriculture development. She said that most of youth had moved away from agriculture as there was no youth-specific programme in agriculture sector.

She said that youth could play an active role in agriculture and rural development and food security. She proposed that government should develop youth focused agriculture related programmes to address the issue of food insecurity.

Murtaza Khan of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad from Charsadda talked about hike in prices of food items and its negative impacts on poor and marginalised segments of society. He urged the government to control the skyrocketing prices of food items.

Idrees Kamal, the executive director of Citizen Rights and Development, said that government was not focusing on agriculture sector. The government was reducing sending on agriculture for the last 30 years that created food insecurity. He said that government should increase budget for agriculture development to improve food security situation in the province.

Waqas Ali from Agricultural University said that agriculture policies were developed under the influence of international financial institutions and World Trade Organisation. “These institutions have no concern with the food security of poor people,” he added.

Mr Ali said that government should develop agriculture policy after context mapping that showed that more than 80 per cent farmers were small and their needs were different.

Pakistan Kissan Ittehad’s representative from Swabi Liaquat Ali highlighted the importance of seed bank for protection of local seed and ultimately ensuring household food security.

He said that those banks were an effective model of collective management of reserves of seed. He said that government should initiate community-led seed banks to save the small farmers from exploitation at the hands of multinational companies.

Society for Rights and Development representative Zar Ali Khan said that most of the food insecure people were living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He added that food insecure people were spending 70 per cent of their expenditures on food and thus compromising on health and education. He said that government should increase budget for agriculture development to ensure food security of every citizen.