The government’s agriculture policies have unnerved farmers, and they have started 2020 on a downbeat note. Kissan Rabita Committee’s Ahsan Munir bemoans the fact that government policies like the rupee’s devaluation and lack of efforts to bring down the prices of farm inputs are adding to the sector’s economic woes.

“It means the new year holds no good news for the farming community and it seems that we have to continue our long struggle for survival,” he says.

On the other hand, the government is eliminating subsidies on water, power and gas to further increase the cost of production of agriculture produce, he laments.

Endorsing Rabita Committee’s views on the prospects of farming in 2020, the Kissan Board Pakistan differs on the issue of subsidies. Farooq Meo, a representative of the board, asserts that subsidies only make farmers beggars while they are those who toil in the fields to contribute to the nation’s food security and prosperity.

In fact, what the sector needs is long-term policies on the provision of certified seed, low-cost and quality fertiliser and pesticides, timely announcement of procurement targets and support prices and concrete steps by the government, Mr Meo stresses.

The Farmers Association of Pakistan is alarmed at ignoring the cotton crop, whose contribution in GDP is equal to that of all other crops, in the Prime Minister’s National Agriculture Emergency Programme.

FAP senior member Ebadur Rehman Khan laments that no action is being taken against breeders, who he says are mainly responsible for destroying the all-important crop of the sector by providing poor quality seed, making no improvements in its traits in the face of changing climate.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, January 6th, 2020