Pak farmers to protest against Imran Khan government over high inflation

Farmers in Pakistan are set to stage a protest in March against the Imran Khan government over high inflation and other issues, according to a media report.

The Diplomat reported that multiple Pakist farmer leaders, under the leadership of the orgsation Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (literally meng Pakistan Farmers' Unity) met on February 21 to work out a roadmap to launch a protest in March.

"The Pakist farmers are set to rally with a list of demands, including the fixing of the minimum support price (MSP) per maund (40 kilograms) of wheat at 2,000 Pakist rupees and sugarcane at 300 rupees, in addition to setting a flat electric power rate of 5 rupees per unit for farm tube-wells.

Pakist farmers have had a tough 12 months. With the unprecedented wheat and sugar crisis taking a toll in the country, the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has been lambasted by the opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for ignoring the farmers' plight

"The seed control rate has gone up from 7,500 rupees to 14,000 rupees. The minimum support price for wheat was 1,400 rupees - we never even got that. Fertilizer was priced at 2,500 rupees but now it costs 4,500 rupees; urea was 1,300 rupees, now it's 1,800 rupees. There is so much input-output disparity for Pakist farmers that our produce just cannot compete with other countries," Pakistan Kissan Ittehad president Zulfikar Awan told The Diplomat.

The news outlet further reported that on November 2, Pakist farmers "camped" in Lahore to register their protests against the government's agricultural policies. On November 5, a protesting farmer was killed in police action, with the law enforcement personnel reportedly mixing tear gas with chemical additives.

"When we go out to protest, we are killed. Our fellow farmer was martyred in November and many others were injured [during the protest]," said Awan, recalling that the demonstration in Lahore had to be hastily called off owing to the state action against the protesters.

Farooq Tariq, the general secretary of the Pakistan Kissan Rabita (Farmers' Contact) Committee (PKRC), in an interview with The Diplomat, said, "[In Pakistan] it's the big compes that get subsidies for medicines or fertilizers. [The Pakistan Army-owned] Fauji Foundation is the most profitable fertiliser company [for example]," he said.

Pakistan's future seems vulnerable as it grapples with lower-than-expected levels of food output and is in urgent need to import key food items including edible oil, wheat, sugar, tea and pulses.

In an article in The News International, Dr Khaqan Hassan Naqeeb and Dr Yusuf Zafar write that the production of the highly-valued cotton crop has dipped to a 30-year low and the productivity of the five staple crops has slipped to less than half of the world's best. Moreover, recent supply shocks have increased food prices by an average of 31 per cent in the past 29 months.

The plight of the agriculture sector led to insufficient availability of local production of food items. Shortages can have serious repercussions for the country's fiscal and external payments. Pressures will surmount with increasing global food prices, making the laudable objective of food security more distant, wrote the Pakist daily.

Saying that Pakistan cannot afford an unsteady agriculture pulse, Naqeeb and Zafar argue that a radically successful reform effort can increase agricultural productivity, create market efficiency and increase farm incomes.

( With inputs from ANI )