While counting the currency notes, a pall of gloom descends on the face of Fateh Khan. He looks towards the “Aarhti” (grain trader) but says nothing.

“I was expecting that my crop of peanuts would earn me a handful of cash, but when I sold it I got very little compensation for my hard labour,” he laments. Fateh Khan was hoping that after selling this crop he would carry out the marriage of hisdaughter but the Rs30,000 he has made are insufficient for this major parental duty.

As the season of harvesting peanut and cultivating wheat carries on, the poor farmers find themselves being exploited by traders who are unwilling to give the farmers their due share. Government’s apathy does not help, and even the tractor owners are cashing in on the farmers’ helplessness.

In Chakwal, the poor farmers are squeezed from every direction.

Chakwal, in spite of being the largest producer of peanuts, offers very little for those who grow the crop through their hard toil. Peanut which is considered a cash crop by authorities is grown on more than 80,000 acres of land in Chakwal. Most of the cultivated area is located in the tehsils of Chakwal and Talagang since the other two tehsils, Choa Syedan Shah and Kallar Kahar are covered with the hilly terrains of Salt Range.

The Ghalla Mandi (Grain Market) gives a whitish look these days and it seems like heaps of groundnut are oozing out of everycorner.  The farmers from the villages of Talagang and Chakwal bring peanut to the Ghalla Mandi in the morning.

Here, the crops are put on display in small heaps. The auction begins at 10am and the trader who offers the highest prices buys the crop. However, sources at Ghalla Mandi inform Dawn that the traders protect each other’s interest and never exceed a certain price during the auction.

“I cultivated groundnut with the hope that revenue from the crops would meet my domestic expenses, but when I reached Ghalla Mandi, I was depressed by the prices the traders fixed for my crop”, Maqsood Ahmed says.

He explained that the trader bought his crop at the rate of Rs2,600 per 40kg which is a very cheap price considering the expenses and toil he went through while producing the crop. “They are buying peanuts at Rs2,200 to Rs3,200 per 40kg but selling it at the rate of Rs4,000 to Rs5,500 per 40kg”, Maqsood claims.

Other farmers say that tractor owners have increased the rate of threshing and ploughing. “They charge Rs1,500 per hour for threshing the crop while they have fixed the rate of ploughing at Rs1,200 per hour,” informed Sultan Khan, another farmer.

The labourers who clean the peanut from different straws are also not paid according to their labour. Tassawar Abbas who cleans the crop along with his family says that he and his family are being exploited by the indifferent behaviour of traders.

“They give us 100 rupees for cleaning a bag of peanut and we get 10 rupees to load a bag on truck. This compensation is too low,” he maintains.

Mohammad Aslam who has hired more than three hundred labourers explained that the traders had not increased the compensation rate in the last four years. “I supply labourers to all the traders but they have not increased their wages for the last four years,” confirmed Mohammad Aslam.

On the other hand, the traders allege that peanut is bringing more loss to them due to government indifference. “Government is importing groundnut from India via Dubai which is disturbing local business,” Hammad Hussain, a trader argued.

He further claimed that he suffered big losses because his peanut could not get a handsome price in Faisalabad, the largest market of grain.

Besides imports that dominate the peanut market, Aslam also pointed out that the insecurity in the country has not helped business. Hussain explained that terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has also affected his business. “Previously, KP was a major destination for peanuts, but now due to militancy the traders are reluctant to sell their crop there”, he maintained.

While accepting that the prices offered to the farmers are low, he said that government, traders and farmers should fix the price of peanut after consultation.

Seventy five percent of Chakwal’s population relies on agriculture for a living. Being a pluvial district, however, makes the farmers dependent on rainfall to survive from year to year. If it rains well and in time, their hard labour will pay off and the yield will be satisfactory, but if it does not rain on time or rains too little, the farmers have to face a tough time.

As far as the government is concerned, its efforts are misdirected and half hearted where they exist. For example, the Punjab Government is spending millions in newspaper ads giving agricultural instructions but it fails to reach the farmers who are unable to read newspapers.

The government publishes informative pamphlets, but they are not distributed among the farmers.

Similarly, there are sixteen small dams in the district but none of them are benefiting the farmers due to the negligence and apathy of the government.

Despite the fact that Chakwal is considered one of the backward districts of Punjab, its farmers are not provided special incentives like the provision of seed and fertiliser at cheap prices. “I could neither buy new seeds of wheat, nor fertiliser as both were out of my reach”, Noor Zaman another farmer explained.

A senior official in agriculture department told Dawn on the request of anonymity, that farmers are not being educated due to shortage of funds. “They should be given special incentives as they come from a backward district”, he maintained.

When contacted, Dr. Khalid Javed, District Officer Agriculture (Technical), said that the Agriculture Department did not have any authority to fix the price of peanuts. “The higher authorities should pay attention to the matter,” he said.

He admitted that farmers were being exploited by traders and suggested that establishment of factories could help improve their situation. “Factories should be established in the district where the products in which peanut is used could be prepared,” he recommended. He said that the construction of factories could benefit the farmers of Chakwal and help alleviate the difficulties they face by creating demand for their product.