F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: Member Pakistan Muslim League-N Central Committee and Provincial Vice President Rashad Mehmood Khan Babozai Sunday alleged that the KP govt is least bother to facilitate the farmers and due to its anti-farmer policies agriculture in the province is going down to worse.
He demanded of the govt to address the problem being faced by farmers in the province because more than 70 percent of people are associated with agriculture. He said the PTI government is implementing anti-farmer policies which have destroyed agriculture in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He grilled the government for “what he called” its misplaced priorities resulting in wastage of valuable resources on ill-planned things which have nothing with the welfare of the common man and even the farmers. He said food, shelter, clothing, health and education are basic necessities of life while unemployment and inflation have further added to the miseries of the farmers. He said instead of facilitating the farmers, the government is going to every extent to damage agriculture sector and continues its anti-farmers policies.
He said that the PML-N government have given due importance towards development in agriculture sector but in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the poor farmers are facing economic massacre at the hands of the government. He said in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 70pc of population is attached with agriculture, are being neglected.
He said the government has initiated a place to increase the number of its farm services centers, jointly run by government and its farming community to cover all its districts and promote best farming practices but their performance has not impressed farmers much, mostly because of their being away from the physical reach of many growers. He said the government has moved on with some policies but without consulting the real stakeholders (farmers). He said, the farm services centers would benefit farmers only if they were established at the union council level, in close proximity to growers. There are farm centers in different districts but these have not been able to fulfill the purpose for which these were established.
The centers, he added, was at a distance of 20 kilometers from his area as a result he and other farmers in the area could not afford to access it. The machinery purchased with hundreds of millions of rupees is lying unused in the centers because farmers cannot afford the financial costs involved in transporting the machinery to their distant villages, he added.
He said such a center 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 utilize its services. Farmers, he added, could not financially afford to transport machinery from the centers premises to their fields because of the long distances between the centers and their areas. These centers partly funded by foreign funded donors aim to rehabilitate farmers affected by militancy and floods of 2010.
He urged upon the government to 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 centers members on affordable rates; arrange or extend the loan facility to the members, make marketing arrangements for all types of surplus produce at the centers, and facilitate the center’s members to avail facilities of laboratories established and maintained by the government on nominal charges.
