Can the newly formed PMLN-led Punjab government let the farmers be unaddressed when they are to block roads with families and cattle and the opposition parties have also announced to support them? This question is being discussed now when the provincial government has arrested several wheat growers.
Why is wheat, despite being a staple food, put on the backburners when it was anticipated that 2024 would mark this crop as bumper? This question, coupled with many others, remains, particularly when the Punjab government appeared unsuccessful in resolving this problem so far. When Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) announced to be on board with protesters, the government may have more troubles.
Anyhow, the farmers across the province are protesting an unwarranted delay in purchasing grain and the reduction in wheat procurement quota from over 4 million tonnes to 2.3 million tonnes. The former figure is a yearly quota of the provincial government. This year fixing the target to half is being claimed carryover stocks of 2.3 million tonnes of wheat. Though, the outgoing caretaker government is said to be responsible, the elected government also looks responsible for not taking timely measures in the given situation.
Nobody is ready to question the outgoing caretaker government that imported nearly 3 million tonnes of wheat this is more than the needs. Can a government take such a step when it was only mandated to run day-to-day affairs and hold elections especially when a bumper crop was expected for 2024? Another question asked is: why not steps were taken to stop the import of staple food? If it was not possible to stop then why the government didn’t purchase it from the local growers and export it to another country?
However, the process for selling wheat to it was altered by the authorities. To obtain gunny bags—which are needed to pack and deliver grain to the government—the government no longer requires written applications; instead, a mobile application is used. The fact that most people living in rural areas are not aware of this technology was disregarded. Almost 400,000 producers sought for these bags even back then, but the government only declared it would give out six bags per acre and to people with a maximum land area of six acres.
Instead, the administration postponed the procurement initiative. The intermediaries continued to take advantage of the circumstances. The administration is defending this rain-related delay without acknowledging that it is also costing farmers money, as
The protesters, led by Kissan Ittihad Pakistan, attempted to march towards the provincial assembly of the Punjab and police intercepted them by blocking the road -The Mall – with containers and arrested several protesters. The farmers’ body claims more than 250 were arrested in the provincial capital. According to the reports, arrests were also made in Pakpattan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Khanewal, Vehari, Kasur, Multan, Sahiwal, and Sadiq Abad districts. According to the police, 30 protesters from Lahore and 16 from Manga Mandi were arrested thus making the total number up to 46 in Punjab.
Importantly it is not a hidden factor from anyone that the agricultural sector is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy. It contributes nearly 23 percent to the national economy. It employs around 38 percent of the labor force in Pakistan. Wheat is considered one of the vital crops for maintaining a healthy diet and dietary staple. Punjab plays a major role in wheat production by allocating 16 million acres, followed by Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Baluchistan. Wheat contributes 37 percent to both food energy and protein intake. Being a staple food, it contributes 72 percent to the food basket of Pakistan.
Pakistan harvested a record 27.5 million tonnes of wheat in 20230, but needed to import more to meet domestic demand until the next crop in April 2024. as it had a shortfall of about 2.6 million tonnes. Now for the year 2024, about 9.12 million hectares, were sown down more than the last year to meet wheat demands. Now when the government knew this increase in advance and was expecting a bumper crop, no steps were taken in advance instead the outgoing caretakers imported wheat which resulted in this crisis.
Now Kissan Ittihad Pakistan has announced blocking highways across the province with the help of their families and livestock, which would be brought to roads with their allies from the opposition parties and even government lawmakers. The government continues to play down this situation with its spokesperson.
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, the head of JI, has declared that he will be initiating a protest campaign against the government in favor of farmers calling for a “fair” price for their produce and government buying of it. According to him, ninety-six percent of small farmers with one or two acres of land are involved in agriculture. However, he said that the remaining 4% held 40% of all the cultivated land in the nation. He said that the nation is currently producing more wheat than it has in the previous fifty years. He questioned why the government requested the import of three million tonnes of wheat costing one billion US dollars when they had 2.1 million tonnes of wheat in stock from the previous year.
The leader of JI stated that anyone involved in this malpractice, be it a member of the current government, the previous caretaker government, the bureaucracy, or a businessperson, should be held accountable and imprisoned for embezzling funds from the national exchequer during a period when foreign reserves were depleted and the nation was dependent on bailout packages from the International Monetary Fund.
The PTI argued that since the government did not buy any wheat or offer farmers a fair price for their produce, it was wrong to use force against the protesting farmers who came to Lahore. The PTI declared that it would support the demonstrators who were criticizing the government for their anti-poor policies and mindset.
(Senior journalist Rana Kashif has authored this piece)
