Farmers in Pakistan organized nationwide protest meetings to push for their demands of better prices for agricultural products and agricultural reforms in the country on Thursday, April 17, on the occasion of the International Day of Peasant Struggle.
The International Day of Peasant Struggle was established by the international movement of peasants and small-scale food producers La Via Campesina to honor the 21 rural workers murdered by the military police on that day in the 1996 Eldorado dos Carajás massacre in Pará, Brazil. Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC), an organization which has been active in protests for agrarian reform in Pakistan, is a part of the Via Campesina. The meetings on Thursday were jointly organized by PKRC, Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (HKP) and other left formations in the country.
A large-scale conference of small farmers and peasants was organized in Depalpur in Punjab and several other meetings were held in various other parts of Sindh.
Speakers in the meetings reiterated the central demands of the farmers movement in the country including fixing a higher price for farm products to make farming sustainable for the majority of farmers in the county.
The major demands of the farmers in Pakistan include:
- a minimum support price of Rs. 4,000 (around USD 14) per quintal for wheat
- an end of open market policies implemented under the pressure of the IMF and WTO,
- an end to corporate farming,
- scrapping of Green Pakistan Initiative (GPI) and plans to construct new canals on Indus,
- implementation of land reforms and comprehensive agricultural reforms in the country.
Farmers in Pakistan have been struggling to get appropriate returns on their investments due to imports and lack of government support. Through its agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Pakistani government announced it would withdraw major subsidies provided to farmers. The withdrawal of the subsidies and open market policies have hit the small and medium farmers in the country the hardest, farmer’s organizations have argued.
PKRC, HKP and other organizations organized nationwide protests on these issues on April 13 as well.
Organizations say that the already persistent crisis in agriculture is expected to compound following the promotion of corporate farming by the government. They allege that thousands of farmers may lose their sources of livelihood in Punjab alone due to the adoption of GPI.
In Sindh, thousands of farmers have been on the streets for the last several months opposing the proposed construction of new canals on the river Indus. The farmers in Sindh claim if new canals are built, the lower riparian regions will be left with no water for irrigation. This will make agriculture unsustainable and thousands will be displaced.
Punjab state government proposal serves the interest of big landlords
Various speakers in the meetings also rejected a proposal announced by the Punjab state government led by Marium Nawaz of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) on Wednesday.
The aid package is expected to provide money to 550,000 farmers with farmers’ credit cards in the state. The government also pledged tax relief to the farmers and lifting of restrictions on movement of wheat across state borders. It would provide incentives for storage of wheat in various forms as well.
However, farmers groups have rejected the package claiming it does not address any of the issues raised by them in the last years and instead serves the interest of the large landlords.
Farooq Tariq, general secretary of the PKRC called it a “work of landlords and influential people and not for common farmers,” in a post on X.
Baba Lateef Ansari, leader of the HKP claimed the package does not address any of the issues raised by the farmers since last year. There is no relief provided to small and marginal farmers and all the money earmarked under the package will go to benefit the big landlords. The package neither gives higher prices to the farmers as demanded nor provides any support on inputs such as fertilizers, to make farming easier, he said in a video message.
Khaled Hussain Baath of Kissan Itehad also claimed that the package was basically a vehicle for corruption and has nothing to do with the wheat procurement or farmers’ issues, Dawn reported.
“Punjab is experiencing a terrible crisis as farmers are unable to cover costs of the wheat crop. Millions of households are being affected. But rulers are so busy fantasizing about profits from mineral deals and corporate farming that they have abdicated responsibility to citizens,” said Ammar Ali Jan, leader of the HKP in a post on X.
