Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will gradually increase the number of its farm services centres, jointly run by government and its farming community to cover all its districts and promote best farming practices.

The province already has a few such centres at the district level, but their performance has not impressed farmers much, mostly because of their being away from the physical reach of many growers.

However, farmers’ response to the government’s endeavour is cautious without doubts.

“We have not been consulted and the proposed bill has been moved in the assembly without taking input from the real stakeholders (farmers),” said Rizwanullah, president of Kissan Board, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Board’s delegation, he added, also held a meeting with the sitting provincial minister for agriculture Shahram Khan and urged him to involve farmers in preparing futures.

“He promised to take farmers along, but prepared the important law without consulting us,” said Mr Rizwan. His organization is an off-shoot of Jamaat-i-Islami, which is part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa coalition government.

Identical views were expressed by Naimatullah Roghani, president of Anjuman-e-Kashtkaran (Association of Farmers), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He, however, said the farm services centres would benefit farmers only if they were established at the union council level, in close proximity to growers.

“We have a farm centre in Mardan at the district level, but it has not been able to fulfill the purpose for which it was established,” said Mr Roghani. The centre, he added, was at a distance of 20 kilometres from his area as a result he and other farmers in the area could not afford to access it.

“Machinery purchased with hundreds of millions of rupees is lying unused in the centre because farmers cannot afford the financial costs involved in transporting the machinery to their distant villages,” said Mr Roghani.

He said such a centre could be successful only if it was set up at the union council level where it would be easy for farmers to access it and utilise its services. Farmers, he added, could not financially afford to transport machinery from the centre premises to their fields because of the long distances between the centres and their areas.

Besides, the concept has also been implemented at a lower level in some parts of Malakand region to organise farmers and impart training to them to achieve higher yields and help them protect their rights.

These centres partly funded by foreign funded donors aim to rehabilitate farmers affected by militancy and floods of 2010. Peshawar-based officials of the provincial government attribute these centres as ‘quite successful’ entities being run by village based community organisations.

Now the provincial government intends to set up farm centres in all the districts of the province. In this regard, the provincial government has tabled the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Farm Services Centres Bill 2014 before the provincial assembly to give legal cover to the future centers.

Each centre will have a management committee with a general body and elected office bearers, including the president, the vice-president, the general secretary, the finance secretary to run the centre’s affair. Rules for the management committees to regulate their business would be framed a higher regulatory body — Farm Services Centre Board — to be set up after the enactment of the law.

The Board will be headed by the secretary of the provincial agriculture and livestock department. Its members will include senior functionaries of the provincial government and seven divisional presidents of Centres who would be elected from among the presidents of all the centres to be formed at the district level.

The draft bill underlines the official plan to organize farmers at the union council level by facilitating them to sit together and jointly run the proposed centres for achieving high crop yields and overcoming their farm-sector related day-to-day problems.

The centres shall protect farmers’ rights and interest, enhance their knowledge and skills, introduce modern agriculture; increase crop yield, develop rural economy, purchase certified seed, fertilizers, animal husbandry services, quality health care services and medicines, farm machinery, expertise and technology for the provision to the centre’s members on affordable rates; arrange or extend the loan facility to the members, make marketing arrangements for all types of surplus produce at the centres, and facilitate the centre’s members to avail facilities of laboratories established and maintained by the government on such charges as may be prescribed from time to time by the government.

Each centre will have a fund, consisting of donation from provincial allocations, grants, membership fee, and contributions. Similarly, income from their resources would also go to their funds.