The Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) has demanded the government to give Cane Procurement Receipt (CPR) a status of cheque to save the sugarcane growers from the injustices of sugar mill owners. This was stated by the KBP Central President Sardar Zafar Hussein Khan at a meeting, which attended the growers' leaders from all of the provinces on Saturday.
They urged the government to ensure the payment of sugarcane growers from mills within 15 days of the sale under the Cane Act. The meeting also demand to abolish the permit system for sugarcane growers and request the mills owners to construct a shed outside the mills to save farmers from weather related problems.
KBP General Council claimed that at least five million people in the country were facing food shortage despite being an agricultural country we were heading towards the food crisis. It said that poverty incidence was increasing day by day and these issues could only be controlled by improving the production of agricultural sector.
However, it regretted that growth in agricultural sector remained almost nil from 1999-2011, while in year 1949, our agriculture had a share of 53 percent in the total of GDP. The meeting also urged the fertiliser manufacturing companies to print the price of fertiliser on each bags, and ensure to launch an investigation in to alleged wrong-doings with imported urea in National Fertiliser Marketing Limited (NFML).
It also drew the attention of the government towards water shortage and proposed that a comprehensive and unanimous policy should be chalked out and constructs the new dams on immediate basis. They asked government to compensate the Swat farmers who lost 38,000 acres of land in floods. The KBP has also asked to stop trade with India because it would push the domestic agricultural sector in bad shape.