The Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) and the Pakistan Agriculture Scientists Forum have urged the government that if it is unable to make agricultural inputs cheaper it should announce the prices of agriculture commodities in line with the international market.
This demand was raised at a joint meeting of both the organisations convened to review the proposed federal budget for the year 2008-09. KBP President Sardar Zafar Hussein Khan and Forum's Chairman Hafiz Wasi Muhammad Khan reviewed the allocations made for agriculture.
Participants of the meeting observed that the proposed budget seemed to be a part of Shaukat Aziz policies as there was no revolutionary step announced in it. "Pakistan could play a very important role in the food crisis being faced internationally provided government give priority to the agriculture," they said.
They alleged that announcements of exemptions of sales tax and subsidy on fertilisers would only benefit hoarders and importers and these had no direct impact for poor farmers. They also termed the allocation under the head of agricultural loans as insufficient and said that farmers community need Rs 400 billion loans and that too at the rate of 5 percent service charges only as given to industrialists.
While small farmers should be given micro finance loans free of interest up to Rs 50,000. They said that there were 850000 tube wells in the country but no subsidy was announced for these tube wells or on tractors. They said the government should announce Quaid-e-Azam card for farmers on the pattern of Benazir card.