Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP) Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said billions of rupees are being spent on subsidy and fertiliser import, but farmers are still getting fertilisers at an exorbitantly high price. Middlemen are making millions of rupees through profiteering, but rulers are determinedly trying to save their chairs. He was speaking to the media after chairing FAP’s 119th Extra Ordinary General Body meeting held here on Tuesday. Qureshi underscored that middlemen, in connivance with the state machinery were involved in huge profiteering, whereas, the government was busy in contempt case and memo scandal. Nobody was paying heed to the problems of the farming community that constituted around 70 per cent of the total population. He underscored that the farmers and farming sector of the country were in real crises. Sugarcane growers were being exploited by sugar millers and cotton or rice farmers were worried owing to low prices. He pointed out that farmers got some Rs5,000 per maund for cotton crop last year, while they had to sell their produce at Rs2,000 to Rs2,500 per maund, this year. Similarly, he indicated, rice prices also dropped in comparison to the previous year, while the cost of farming was multiplied. The government had announced diesel price of Rs105 per litre that was beyond the reach of a common farmer. He underscored that farming had become unviable in the present circumstance. Qureshi further stated fertiliser off take had been dropping continuously, because fertiliser prices had gone beyond farmers’ reach, which was against the national interest.
