LAHORE - Hundreds of farmers, under the banner of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI), on Thursday held a protest demonstration against agriculture department and ever-increasing prices of agri inputs in front of Punjab Assembly.
The protesters started blocking the Mall Road from all sides from Thursday afternoon, creating problems for the motorists crossing The Mall.
Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) President Khalid Mehmood Khokhar addressing the protesters said that their sit-in and protest will continue the whole night and they will offer a symbolic funeral prayer of the Punjab Agriculture Department which is actually dead for a long time. He said that on Friday the protesters will move to Islamabad where they will protest in favour of their demands.
He demanded subsidy to provide relief to farmers and sought govt’s help for strengthening the agriculture sector of the province.
Khokhar claimed that farmers are facing losses in all major crops, including cotton, sugarcane and rice. The average per acre cost for cotton, including all inputs/operations comes around at Rs85,000, however, the market rate per acre reaches Rs58,000 approximately, which means a loss of Rs27,000 per acre. Similarly, sugarcane’s average production cost per acre comes at around Rs152,000 and the farmer gets around Rs 135,000 bearing a loss of Rs 17,000 per acre. The PKI president said that India is giving huge subsidies on agriculture inputs. He also criticized vegetables import from India, which is damaging Pakistan agriculture crop. He demanded special agri electricity tariffs at Rs5 per unit to facilitate farmers, besides removing GST on agri inputs, as is being practiced across the world.
Khokhar said, the government, instead of promoting modern technology and research in seed production, is planning to convert 1,400 acres of land into a housing society in Islamabad.
Kisan Ittehad leader warned that if the government did not solve the burning issues of the farming and dairy sectors, and rollback any plans of transfer of NARC, farmers would continue their protests.