MULTAN, Sept 22nd: The Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) has announced to stage a demonstration in front of the National Assembly building if the ten points charter of demands presented by it is not accepted immediately . "Our demands are aimed at resolving the issues being faced by the growers' community of the country and development of the agricultural sector which contributes 18 percent to the National GDP. Pakistan's 70% exports are agriculture-based and among that 67% is only textiles and cotton. Any decline in one million bales of cotton, reflects in reduction of 1% GDP, showing how agriculture is important for the economy of Pakistan," said PKI President Ch.Muhammad Anwar. While addressing a crowded press conference at Multan Press club along with Malik Zulfikar Hussain, Ch.Shamim, Abdul Ghafoor Kulachi,Wajid Nole, Raja Joiya, Mazhar Hussain, Ghulam Rasul, Javed Hussain ,Imran Waraich and Abbas Kaliyar.He reiterated the demands and said that subsidised power tariff be restored for agriculture sector, Previous Prices of fertlizers must be revived, White fly and locust swarm had badly hit the cotton crop in Punjab and Sindh and Government should compensate the affectees. Stern action be taken against those pesticides companies which had supplied spurious and substandard pesticides to eliminate the white fly. Ch.Anwar said that support price for raw-cotton(Phutti) should as minimum as Rs.5000/40kg, support price for wheat must be announced at the time of sowing while sugarcane prices be fixed at Rs.300/- per 40kg.Ch.Anwar alleged that some companies had supplied substandard ,non-germinated, uncertified maize seed to farmers consequently they had suffered a huge loss. He said that some people who claimed to be leaders of growers are very active in the government with their vested interests.He stressed the need for evaluating the assets and sources of income of these so-called farmers leaders.He said that In the current budget, 10% GST is imposed on cotton ginners which is ultimately transferred to cotton growers must be withdrawn immediately. Prices of urea fertilizer have been increased which needs to be corrected. The PKI Chief further said that Pakistan is a country with least investment on agriculture research in the region. "We are spending fewer amounts on research than Bangladesh and Nepal. Ex-finance Minster's commitment of Rs 700 million allocations for cotton research was not honored during the budget preparation and zero allocation was made for cotton. The government should announce agriculture emergency, and allocation of special fund to deal with the emergency. For agriculture emergency the crops added to the program clearly have relation to industrialists and big land lords. Cotton was intentionally ignored.The seriousness of the government can be seen in locust control, which is devastating millions of acres as the federal government or provincial governments have not made any allocation for it, rather the federal government is relying on contributions and donations from pesticide companies, seed companies, and various associations to procure insecticides and locust management in Sindh and Balochistan province.He further demanded that cotton should be included in the agriculture emergency program without any delay. 10% GST on cotton ginners should be withdrawn, fuel adjustment surcharge should be abolished immediately, research allocation for agriculture research should be enhanced to 2% of agricultural GDP and special allocation for cotton research of Rs 700 million should be made as APTMA is not paying cotton cess
