Farmers and growers associated with various farmers’ organizations of Sindh came to the roads in large number towns of southern and central parts of Sindh on Friday to register their protest against the import of tomatoes, onions and other products from Iran and other countries. The leaders requested the Imran Khan led-PTI government to stop importing tomatoes. They said that crops of tomatoes in various districts of the southern and central parts of Sindh were now ready to cater to the needs of the consumers in most parts of the country. The protest demonstrations were held by the farmers in Hyderabad, Badin, Mirpurkhas, Tando Mohammad Khan,Sujawal, Thatta and some towns of Tharparkar districts on Friday. to press the federal government to stop such practices which were harming the agriculture sector of the province. The big protest demonstration was held in Hyderabad where the leaders of various political parties, activists, members of the civil society joined them and pressed the government to mend its ways and stop exploiting the farming community of Sindh.
The leaders of the protesting farmers and growers said that crops cultivated by farmers and growers in Badin, Mirpurkhas, Thatta, Sujawal, Tando Mohammad Khan. Tando Allahyar, Hyderabad, Matyari Sanghar and other districts of the province ,was now being marketed by the producers as per the need of the markets and hoped that the produce of the tomatoes was now enough to cater to requirements in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad Faisalabad , Multan and other markets of Punjab. ” It is the high time to press federal government to stop importing the crop from Iran” they added and said if the practice was not stopped the farming community of the province would sustain huge losses of their yields, as according to them, rate of the crop was dropping with each passing day as the produce from the farms was on the steep rise with the advent of harsh winters, the season which favours much for the growth of the crop in lower and central parts of Sindh. The farmers during their protests deplored the fact governments over the years had never bothered to devise farmers’-friendly policies both in export in the import of their crops adding they underscored the need to make the concerted efforts to provide the relief to farmers of the country through the sophisticated mechanism.“ The farming community should not mete out the step motherly treatment in the wake of the vagaries of climate change” the farmers added. . They said that the ill-conceived policies of the rulers had created unrest and uncertainty among the agricultural producers and cultivars across the country despite the country was very much dependent on that sector. They said that the farmers after the flooding during the monsoon season this year preferred to cultivate the crop in thousands of the acres in various districts which had become mature now and its produce was now being marketed in all big markets of Sindh from where it was being purchased by the dealers from Punjab and KPK and other parts of the country. ” There is no need now to import tomatoes and onions from Iran and the practice was not stopped within the next few weeks. It would inflict huge losses to the farming community of Sindh and put extra burden on the dealers from other provinces. Pir Fayyaz Hussain Rashdi, Azizullah Dero, Khalil Ahmed Bhurgari, Mir Noor Ahmed Talpur, Abdul Ghafoor Chandio, Arbab Zulfikar Ali and other leaders of the various organizations talking to this reporter warned the federal government of the dire consequences if their demands were not met at the earliest. They farmers in various towns of Sindh protested peacefully to divert the attention of rulers towards their genuine demands and hoped that Prime Minister Imran Khan would himself take notice of their wide protests else they warned to widen the scope of their protests by giving the shutdown calls in towns across the region.
