Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) President Srdar Zafar Hussein launching a protest movement on Thursday against shortage of the fertiliser and its black marketing, has urged the government to immediately ensure the availability of fertilisers to the growers.
Sardar Zafar announced this while addressing a big gathering of the farmers at Sangla Hill (District Nankana Sahib). He also announced to hold demonstrations against shortage of fertilisers in all the districts on November 04, 2011 (Friday).
According to the KBP Secretary Information Haji Muhammad Ramzan, the Board during a meeting with the Punjab Agriculture Minister Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh has also made it clear that if availability of the fertiliser is not ensured, the Board will be holding country wide protest and rallies after Eid.
On Thursday, KBP President addressed a public meeting at Sangla Hill while its Sindh President Dr Abdur Razzak Khosa addressed another meeting at Kashmor. They urged the provincial and federal governments to ensure availability of the fertiliser and take action against mafia involved in black marketing of it. They also urged the governments to revisit the prices of different agricultural commodities and fix the support prices afresh. They claimed that at present prices, growers are even not receiving their input cost.
Meanwhile representatives of different growers' organisations called on the Punjab Minister for Agriculture Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh here on Thursday and apprised him the hardships being faced by the farmers due to shortage of Urea fertiliser.
The Minister alleged that some people sitting in the government were deliberately creating shortage of the fertiliser and encouraging black marketing. Those who called on him included Farmers Associate Pakistan (FAP) representative Nawab Farhat Ullah Khan, Hamid Malhi and Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) representative Sarfraz Khan, Haji Muhammad Ramzan and Akhtar Farooq Mayo, while Nasir Cheema represented Aiwan-e-Zaraat. Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh said that the provincial government was repeatedly reminding the federal government since July 15 about requirement of 2.4 million tons of fertiliser but no clear plan to ensure availability of fertiliser for Rabi crop had come up by the federal government.