Sugarcane growers have expressed serious concern over the government's failure to implement courts order regarding payment of the sugarcane price to the farmers and warned to agitate after three days if the mills owners did not clear their dues.
Talking to this scribe here, the leaders of Farmers' Alliance said that in Punjab province the sugar mills owners were paying from Rs 180 to 190 for per 40-kg sugarcane to the farmers while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the growers at the disposal of millers. The millers are looting the farmers at their free will as the price fixed by the Supreme Court was also not paid to them.
The agriculture, they said was stated to be backbone of the country's economy but despite that it was the most neglected sector because the farmers were not given any kind of incentive/financial support to increase the agriculture produce.
About the growing prices of fertilizers and agriculture tools, machinery, the farmers said that this sector had never been a priority of the successive governments and thus farmers were also switching over to other professions.
"We have given three days ultimatum to the millers to clear our dues within three days as per decision of the Supreme Court which had already fixed sugarcane per maund price at Rs 180 otherwise the farmers will start observing sit-in outside Khazana Sugar Mills Peshawar," Abdur Rehman Khan, a grower said.
Another farmer Jameel Khan said that if the government was really sincere to improve agriculture sector then it should provide incentives to the farmers to encourage them.
How the farmers will improve the agriculture when they are not given fertilizer at reasonable price, irrigation water at the proper time," he said and asked the government to provide interests-free agriculture loans to the farmers on easy installments.
Another leader of growers and Pakistan Muslim League-N provincial joint secretary Israrullah Khan said that the people of different sections of society including farmers had badly suffered due to the menace of terrorism and now it was government's duty to support the affected people.
He said that most of the population in rural areas had to depend on agriculture but they could not improve it unless the government announces sufficient facilities/ incentives for them. He suggested that agriculture department should play its role effectively to encourage the farmers by providing them with facilities including quality seeds, necessary training so that they could increase agriculture produce in respective localities.
Israrullah also asked for construction of form to market roads to help the farmers transport their produce to the markets easily on minimum charges.