PUNJAB’S agriculture budget, announced last Friday, immediately drew sharp reaction from all.

Farmers’ bodies, individual growers and experts in the province called it a total betrayal of promises made by the provincial government during the budget-making process.

The farm development outlay has been fixed at Rs21bn. Out of it, Rs15bn would go to the much-touted Kissan Package (read it as provincial contribution to the federal subsidy on fertilisers), leaving only Rs6bn for the entire development effort. For the World Bank-funded Punjab Irrigated Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project (Pipip), Rs3.3bn have been proposed.

Farmers say what they had been looking for was a concerted provincial effort to boost crops, like rice and cotton, horticulture and the creation of cold chain and supply chain management as a local launching pad for exports

The establishment of the Punjab Agriculture Food and Drug Authority (Pafda) would take another Rs2bn. Farmers wonder what this authority has to do with the agriculture development budget. Such allocations are likely to affect the entire developmental activity.

The development budget lists another Rs3.3bn projects. They include Rs726m for setting up the Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture in Multan; Rs669m for subsidised provision of laser land levellers to farmers and service providers; Rs513m for extension service to farmer through modernised means; Rs500m for optimising watercourse conveyance efficiency; another Rs500m for promotion of high value crops; Rs200m for setting up of model farms, Rs100m for the cotton seed reform project and Rs100m for the development of hybrid and OPVs in horticulture crops resilient to climate change.

Farmers say that the limited scope of the package is evident as vital areas where the government was already committed have been left out. Punjab’s chief minister had announced Rs100bn package for farmers in March 2016. Out of it, Rs50bn were given last year and Rs50bn was due this year, explains Naeem Hotiana — a grower from central Punjab.

“Instead, the total allocation under this head has come down to Rs15bn. Similar is the case of cotton seed development. Last year, the government spared Rs5bn for the effort, which could not be spent for different reasons. This year, the allocation is down to Rs100m.”

Punjab’s finance minister also claimed better performance of the crop sector in her speech, especially that of wheat. The minister claimed that the province had produced 22.5m tones of wheat, whereas the figure conveyed to the Federal Committee of Agriculture was 19.5m tones only.

For the last four years, wheat has not been on the government priority list because of huge surpluses that the provincial food department had been carrying. Why take credit of a crop that is no more the province’s priority?

The farmers had been pleading for a level playing field with the Indian farmers, with whom they have to compete in the local market, when imports are allowed, says the Chief of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad, Khalid Khokhar.

This demand has been made to the federal and provincial governments repeatedly, but to no avail. Frustrated farmers are now seriously considering launching a country-wide movement for their rights, he warns.

Farmers say what they had been looking for was a concerted provincial effort to boost crops, like rice and cotton, horticulture and creation of cold chain and supply chain management as a local launching pad for exports.

Their hopes did not come from the thin air but were generated by official discussions and provincial ground realities. The Punjab government has been totally silent on these issues to the farmers’ disappointment.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, June 5th, 2017