Summary Environment, agriculture and media experts have urged to bring land reforms for food security.
ISLAMABAD: Environment, agriculture and media experts at a workshop have called for making joint efforts to bring land reforms, ensure food security and halt onslaught of corporate farming in the country by taking all stakeholders on board.
“The government should change its outdated mindset and come forward with a positive and farmers-friendly approach to redistribute land among peasants and provide financial backup aid to them for growing crops so that they could get their livelihood peacefully,” the experts said while speaking at the capacity building workshop for media persons, land reforms, food security and poverty.
The workshop was organised by the Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment (Scope) and the National Peasants Coalition of Pakistan (NPCP) in collaboration with the Oxfam Novib and the International Land Coalition at a local hotel on Monday and Tuesday.
“Agriculture is the mainstay of the Pakistan economy, accounting for 25 per cent of GDP, 60 per cent of export earnings and 48% of employment,” said Tanveer Arif, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) SCOPE in his presentation on land reforms.
He said that poverty and food security issues are closely linked to land and that was why the International Land Coalition was formed. “We are working on benefits and losses of corporate sector. Food and fuel prices are rising worldwide and they have become a global issue, causing agriculture crisis. Climate change is also affecting agriculture sector,” he observed.
He said that some 20.9 million hectares of land (26 per cent of the country) is cultivated, of which 76 per cent is irrigated by a vast network of canals, dams and barrages of Indus River System.
“Pakistan inherited feudal system from British Raja. Land distribution in Pakistan is highly unequal as 5 per cent of large landholders possess 64 per cent of total farm land and 65 per cent small farmers hold 15 per cent of land,” he informed.
“The large land holders have all political powers and economic advantages.
He said that 50.8 per cent of rural households are landless while the poverty amongst rural landless people is high. He said that power of landowners is a monopoly that has served as a barrier to social and economic progress for poor.
Land reforms are required not only to accelerate agriculture growth, but also to prevent the developing social crisis associated with the poverty and disempowerment of peasants in Pakistan’s rural society, Tanveer Arif asserted.
