Sindh Province Launches People’s Harika for Small Farmers

The Sindh provincial government decided to launch the People’s Harika in the new fiscal year to benefit poor farmers in the province who own a small amount of land.

Agriculture Minister Muhammad Ismail Rahoo said at a news conference on Wednesday that according to the People’s Harika plan, a subsidy of Rs 3 billion will be provided to small farmers in the new fiscal year.

Rahu said that the Sindh provincial government will register one million farmers who own small-scale land in the province and issue them people’s harika. He said that subsidies will be provided to small farmers, providing them with fertilizers and other agricultural necessities.

The Minister said that the Sindh provincial government will build 16 new cold storage facilities in the province in the new fiscal year to preserve agricultural products. He said that the salty subsoil water of Thar will become suitable for planting by installing special plants for this purpose. He also said that the Sindh provincial government stands with farmers in the province.

He claimed that the agricultural sector has been greatly affected due to the policies of the federal government. He said that although the share of agriculture in the country’s GDP is 19%, the center only allocates 12 billion rupees for the sector.

He pointed out that the agricultural sector in the federal budget only accounts for 1% of the public sector development plan. Rahu said that during the current government, the prices of farmers’ urea, seeds and tractors have seen record increases. He said that only 1% of farmers in Sindh got loans from the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan. He claimed that the federal government did not provide any support when the agricultural sector in Sindh was faced with heavy rain, drought and locust challenges.