FAISALABAD, Jun 25 (APP): In any agricultural country like Pakistan, the governments ensure special incentives, subsidies, support prices and market access for farmers to make them flourish and provide a food basket also for those not associated with this profession.
Be it India, Pakistan, China, Russia, the United States or any other country, everywhere farmers’ community is subsidized by lessening inputs prices, electricity bills, petroleum fuel prices and provision of irrigation water.
In many cases, their crops are directly purchased by state-owned institutions like PAASCO but most of the time the farmers have to approach Commission Agents at grain markets for the sale of their products.
Knowing well the shortcomings and compulsions of small farmers, these Commission agents usually fleece the hard-earned money of farmers through their nexus either in the name of credit or quality of products or market recession.
They also provide finance-starved farmers the inputs on higher rates in the name of credit but pay less for their crops. As the culture of the Hindu era of pre-partition still reflects in our system, the agents are far away from the Islamic principles of doing business.
Most often they grasp a lion’s share of the produce when they see the grower in dire need of money. This vicious circle of purchasing input from commission agents on higher rates and selling them their crops on cheaper rates continues over decades. Even farmers are not usually paid instant cash but are given a certain deadline for payment during which period the commission agents sell products to retailers, hold their profit first and then pay the farmers.
“This exploitive tendency of commission agents to fleece hard-earned money of poor farmers is painful,” said Muhammad Faizan Khan, a Small Growers Association representative in Faisalabad.
He informed that one of the commission agents bought a 50-kg lemons bag from his friend for just Rs.7000 at a time when its price was almost Rs 20,000. “When I asked my friend why he sold the lemon so cheaper, he said he was in dire need of money and agreed on what he was offered.”
Faizan said, this is how the commission agents exploit the farmers. “The small farmers hardly meet their ends and when an urgent need arises, they approach commission agents who exploit the opportunity.”
“This is the saga of thousands of farmers and goes on for decades. Therefore, appropriate corrective measures were direly needed to release farmers from the clutches of the commission agent mafia,” he pleaded.
He demanded some effective legal forum where farmers could approach a remedy. “We need to educate our farmers, fix all commodities prices especially fruits and vegetables like wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton.”
“When support price is fixed for each produce, the growers can better bargain,” he said. “Moreover, the government should provide facilities of warehouses or big stores near markets, to preserve farmers’ perishable products.”
He recommended to ensure better management at already established procurement centers as he claimed that presently either there is a capacity issue or the staff deliberately delays purchasing in connivance with the commission agents.
He suggested to expand the scope of organizations like Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) for procurement of agricultural edibles.
Chaudhary Tahir Razzaq Chairman Kisan Council also mentioned to financial problems of small farmers who have to borrow money from commission agents and in response have to sell their agri commodity to the same agent usually at compromised prices.”
He demanded support prices for agricultural commodities and said in the absence of support prices, the tomato growers had to bear severe losses during the last season while the commission agents earned hefty profits.
Chaudhary Maqsood Ahmad Chairman Potato Growers Association proposed to set up Farmers’ Rights Protection Committees at Union Council level for ensuring better payback to farmers for their products.
Rana Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, a representative of the Small Growers’ Association, said that role of commission agents could be cut to size by fixing their nexus and reducing their unjustified profit through their registration and documentation.
“If each commission agent is registered and his profit margin is fixed, the small growers can easily get the real price of their produce”, he added.
He recommended a fair weighing system and silos for growers near grain and vegetable markets and implement a check and balance system in markets.
Zia-ul-Haq said the government had planned to provide growers’ space in markets to sell their products but the Qabza mafia and Arhatis hindered its proper implementation.
Meanwhile, Chaudhary Abdul Hameed Director Agriculture has said that farmers have been provided Kisan Cards to purchase inputs on subsidized rates and are apprised of the latest commodities rate through a digital system.
He said by the time the government ensures documentation of market committees and preparation of their monthly income and expenditure reports. In the next phase, the commission agents would also be registered also fixing their profit margin.
He said weighing bridges and boards have been installed at major markets and this facility would also be available in other markets very soon. “Market committees are bound to display commodities and commission rates, remuneration of a functionary, rate of market fee and license fee, etc.”
He said the agriculture department has installed digital electronic rate boards at 27 sites in major cities of the Punjab province. “We have also introduced a mobile application named AMIS Punjab for price information.”
As only registered farmers may benefit from these steps, there is a dire need for the agriculture department to get more and more farmers registered for benefitting from in-time information about crop rates, weather conditions, subsidies and incentives announced by the government from time to time.
