Wheat seeds shortage feared in KPK

Wheat seeds shortage in KPK

By Tahir Ali
(DAWN Monday, 20 Sep, 2010)

WITH the wheat sowing season to commence next month, farmers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa anticipate an acute shortage of seeds. They fear that if the issue is not tackled soon, it will severely damage the crop prospects.

They want the federal and provincial governments and the international community to come to the rescue of the badly hit growers for whom the coming Rabi crop constitutes a first step towards their ultimate rehabilitation.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has also warned that farmers in KP may not be able to plant wheat because of non-availability of quality seed and other needed inputs. Failure to provide time-critical inputs could reduce wheat yields, it fears.

Realising the potential seed shortage, the government has asked district agriculture officials to buy even the wheat meant for food.

“Normally wheat food grain is not utilised for sowing. But as seed shortage is feared, the director-general agricultural extension, KP, has asked all districts to buy as much of the commodity as possible,” says an official.

Though officials are confident there would be no shortage of seed, farmers fear its scarcity in coming weeks.

“Enough quantity and a robust system of distribution must be arranged in emergency,” said Niamat Shah Sawal Dher, general secretary of the Anjuman-e-Kashtkaran of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Shah feared that millions of acres of irrigated land may be left barren if seed was not arranged in time. “With the Pirsabaq’s seeds research farm, public seeds industry and private seed stocks having been mostly destroyed by floods, KP is almost certain to face wheat seed shortage. The government should quickly import standard certified seeds to fill the gap,” he said.

“There are also reports that the government wants to utilise food standard wheat as seeds in wake of shortage. This is not a right choice,” Shah added.

Murad Ali Khan, the president of the Kissan Board Pakistan, said “We will like the government to provide seed free of cost to flood-hit farmers.”

Muhammad Zahir Khan, a farmers’ leader, said Charsadda farmers have lost wheat seed stored in their homes. “The government and farmers organisations should sit together to chalk out a strategy as to what should be done to ensure a bumper wheat crop. Wheat sowing is at hand, but there is neither any compensation nor free seed or other inputs for the growers despite promises. I am worried how will farmers pay their agricultural debts, buy inputs and feed their families when they won’t be able to sow wheat,” she said.

Bakht Biland Khan, general secretary of Kissan Board, Swat, also asked for relief . “While we know Swat is not the only place to have been hit by flood but we do deserve more attention as we have been devastated first by militancy and then by floods. Swat farmers are mostly poor who own an acre of land and have no money to buy inputs. We deserve to be compensated for our losses and must be given free seed and money to buy farm inputs and reclaim our fields,” he said.

A senior official said: “We will shortly take up the issue with the federal government. The provincial food department has also enough wheat stock that can be used as seed. Private seed companies will also be procuring the commodity. We also intend to buy seed from Punjab and have already bought 2,000 tons of it. Though at present we have only a small quantity of the required seed, it is hoped that by the start of the wheat sowing season, the problem will be solved,” he added. But this, others fear, may not be the case.

The KP uses about 1.9 million acres for wheat cultivation. The provincial seeds industry provides 10 per cent of the total wheat seeds requirement of 80,000 metric tons to farmers.

This year the demand for wheat seed has increased. In the past, 70 per cent of the KP farmers used their own stock while the rest bought seeds. Now as floods have destroyed wheat stocks in Charasadda, Nowshera and the DIK and Lakki Marwat, the government will have to provide seeds to more farmers.

Recent flash floods have dealt severe blows to agriculture in Peshawar valley, Malakand division and southern parts of the province.

The FAO, provincial Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority and some local and international non-governmental organisations are planning to provide farm inputs to farmers on a limited scale. It means a large number of affected farmers will not benefit from the plan and will be left out.

Liberalism of the chattering classes

This class wants democracy. Who doesn't? But do these sophists understand how democracy functions. Not really. They are wealthy, sophisticated, educated and call themselves the intelligentsia. They live in an air-controlled environment and party at will, partaking of the good things of life, some forbidden, but readily available if you pay the cash. Where is this claque of democracy lovers now when the great deluge has drowned the life of the poor? Has any fat cat gone hungry; thirsty; homeless? Or lost his/her designer wardrobe to the Great Flood? Or fallen victim to diarrhoea, nausea, malnutrition, dehydration, cholera, even death?
Has this cavalier class created some kind of collective synergy, a formula to face the aftermath? To organise cadres of volunteers overseeing the relief? To question who is the national bursar? Imran Khan and a few others are exemplars. They have produced concrete results.
The word 'democracy' is a shrill cliché in our part of the world. Ruling politicians swear they want to save democracy (from whom?). High-powered journalists bandy the word. Members of civil society especially those running foreign-funded non-governmental organisations lecture us on its worth. Instead of homilies, where can one find a sober voice of reason/ analyst/ expert who can guide the way to a workable democracy, not the one where corruption by the rulers is condoned and criminal neglect by the decision-makers ignored. Has any scofflaw, the politician who let their people drown to save their lands during the flood been hauled up?
Is Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry now holding the additional portfolio of commander-in-chief of accountability?
Nobody wants the generals/brigadiers/ colonels/majors and captains taking charge of governance. They are not fit to rule. They are fit to fight. "Enroll your son in the fauj if his grades don't make the mark or colleges reject them," was the mantra in Pakistani households not long ago. But that's not to say that every duffer or a loser was marched off to the barracks. Not at all. Some brilliant brains and brave hearts defending our borders have won the highest awards in chivalry and art of war. They are our pride.
But martial law? No thanks. It's been a colossal failure whenever imposed. Imagine having an army captain turn up at your office in his jeep with his dunda tucked under his arm, wanting to take over your space because he's now your boss. I've seen it happen during the 1965 and 1971 wars and during Yahya's 1969; Zia's 1977 and Musharraf's 1999. Memories of the first martial law in Punjab in the 50s when squabbling politicians failed to control the public riots (déjà vu today) are etched in my mind (kids have a great retention power). The GOC of Lahore General Azam Khan was given orders by the Defence Secretary Gen Iskander Mirza to go sort everyone out. Sure he did! Instead of targeting the politicians responsible for the mess (and I can give you the inside story), the chief secretary and commissioner Lahore got jerked around. Like a hurricane, the little general in his uniform would show up at the door, unannounced, and begin barking orders throwing the whole household into a tizzy.
Fast forward to another martial law.
My chapter opens on a cold spring day when the blossoms in New York were just opening up and the sun felt good. We wound our way to the Pakistan mission located on a side-road of the swank Fifth Avenue, the home of Manhattan's millionaires. Fluttering in the mild breeze was a giant Pakistani flag on a slanted pole. It was making a statement. Pride and hope rushed to the brain as we climbed a majestic staircase, the kind you see in old mansions, to step into a crystal chandeliered room. The voting had begun. Did we want the general to stay in office for three years to clean up the mess after Nawaz Sharif? Of course yes!
Soon after Musharraf became the president, he went to China to talk shop. According to someone very close to him, the couple didn't have extra dollars to buy themselves thermal vests. They shivered until someone in the entourage lent them $300 to go get themselves woolies. That was the winter of 1999. "The suits he wore during the trip were atrocious, cheap material and badly stitched." Very soon Mr & Mrs Musharraf's wardrobes underwent a sea-change. Donning Armani suits and matching ties with imported leather shoes became the dictator's hallmark. When the Iraqi President Saddam Hussain offered oil to Pakistan at throwaway prices, Musharraf declined. Why? The Americans had gotten wind of it waving green backs at him that proved too tempting to resist. Some went into the Pakistani treasury; some allegedly into his bank account abroad.
The public may never find out how their president betrayed them and sold their national interest for a few pieces of silver. Of course we had a parliament in place; of course we had a prime minister with his troupe of ministers; of course we had an opposition - All the ingredients that make for a democracy. George W Bush patted Musharraf for introducing democracy; he invited him to his farm in Texas. He gave $ 10 billion to him to keep the 'war on terror' from reaching the American mainland. The brass back home cranked up its outdated hardware giving India the jitters. Visits to and fro from the US by our men in uniform became commonplace.
While Musharraf kept his generals happy with enough dough coming from the US, Shaukat Aziz and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain were left to deal with democracy. They made a hash of the civilian set up; they demolished established institutions; they laid to waste all the progress achieved in the area of education, science and higher learning. Load-shedding entered our lives one fine morning. The chief justice and his judges were made non-functional.
Yeah, that was democracy!
Altaf Hussain has had enough of democracy. Cut in the style of a pseudo Alexander; Caesar; Genghis Khan, he rules over the hearts and minds of his burgeoning army listening in pin-drop silence to his histrionic declamation delivered on phone from London regularly at a raily (as in rally). This makes sure the rest of Pakistan (GHQ, Presidency and the PM House) hear him. Naught for nothing has the MQM always been a coalition partner with dictators and democrats alike over decades.
But Hussain's latest jingoism about empowering generals and pinning politicians to the guillotine has left tongues swaggering. The only positive outcome of this shemozzle is that the media and the intelligentsia have finally replaced their kid gloves with knuckledusters. But, instead of going to war with Hussain inviting martial law, we should try separating the chaff from the grain that he scatters so freely. There is sense in what he says. We need to engage him further; ask his action plan; how he intendeds executing it. He must have some plan. Can he leave his staple flowery script accompanied by a marsia style of lamentation, for once?
In the weeks to follow, I'd like to share my notes on democracy when it first became a fad way back in the 50s. The long journey may elicit some answers. And answers we must have. Because what we have today is not what we want.

Email: anjumniaz@rocketmail.com

Hekmatyar terms peace talks a drama

 PESHAWAR: Terming the peace talks a drama to deceive the people of Afghanistan, Hezb-e-Islami Chief Gulbadin Hekmatyar on Tuesday said that continuation of jihad was only way to resolve the prevailing problems in Afghanistan.
“We must be aware that Moscow, Washington and our jealous neighbours may impose the same situation on our nation that they imposed after the withdrawal of Russian forces from Afghanistan,” the fugitive Afghan leader said in a message sent to the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) ahead of Eidul Fitr.
He said the Americans wanted to hand over the incomplete command of war in Afghanistan to Iran and Russia. “For this purpose they have strengthened pro-Moscow and Iran groups in Afghan army, police and intelligence department,” he said, and urged all the Muslims and mujahideen to join hands to foil the conspiracy.
He said talk about reconciliation was a drama to deceiving people. “Don’t see it the only way out of the Afghan issue and continue the jihad oust all the foreign troops from Afghanistan,” the HI chief said.
Hekmatyar alleged that explosions and rockets attacks on houses, villages, wedding celebrations and schools were carried out by the ‘enemy’.
Hekmatyar warned Pakistani and Iranian officials against supporting the United States and Afghan government. “We advise Pakistani and Iranian officials to shun support to Americans and not compromise on bloodbath of innocent Afghans and destroying their homeland in exchange for US perks and privileges,” he added.
The former premier also urged the Afghans to take active part in jihad and support mujahideen in their struggle against the foreign forces.

Farm inputs centers at villages

Farm inputs: need for village sale centers

By Tahir Ali
Monday, 30 Aug, 2010  

 

FARMERS in the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa have demanded of the government to provide them with easy and timely access to agriculture inputs so that they may sow the next crop.

“With thousands of tons of wheat and maize seeds having been washed away by recent floods, there is an urgent need to procure and store substantial amount of the commodities in advance. We would like the government to provide these two basic inputs to growers free of costs as they are hardly hit,” said Murad Ali Khan, president of the Kissan Board Pakistan.

For this to happen, village-based agriculture inputs/services provision centres (AIPCs) should be set up.

“Agricultural inputs are the main headache of farmers. In times of need, they either disappear from the market or are too costly and unaffordable for the poor growers. With the wheat sowing season not far away, there could no better time than now to advocate the village-based setup,” said Khan.

According to Niamat Shah, general secretary of the Anjuman-e-Kashtkaran Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, farmers’ income can be substantially increased if quality seeds, fertilisers, machinery, pesticides and other services are provided to them in time and on cheaper rates.

“These AIPCs would be like agriculture utility stores which also would serve as store houses/marketing centres for all agricultural inputs. They will provide inputs, soft loans, guidance and training and other services to farmers at comparatively cheaper rates and in time. These are vital for capacity-building of farmers and are supposed to create linkages between farmers and public/private line departments and associations. The centres will also develop and fund some demonstration farms. The high yield of these farms will serve as incentives to other farmers,” he argued.

These centres should be established on the basis of union council, Patwar Halqa or villages and should comprise all stakeholders in agriculture, i.e. farmers, livestock owners, agriculture department field assistants, patwaris, veterinary doctors, seeds/fertiliser industry and bank representatives.

To minimise the chances of corruption, there should be oversight bodies over these local chapters at district and provincial levels with membership on the same pattern, he added.

“The government should open a centre at each of the 986 union councils in the province. Then these bodies should be organised on Patwar halqa and ultimately on village basis to cover the entire or most of the farmers the province. These centres must function under the supervision of the provincial agriculture department,” said Shah.

Every AIPC should have certified seed, fertiliser, pesticides and farm machinery, repair workshop, veterinary hospital, the latest information about various aspects of farming, branch of Zari Traqqiati Bank to disburse interest-free loans, a multimedia workshop, storage facility and a branch of insurance company for crop insurance.

Finances for the centres are likely to be the most pressing issue. “But the issue could be tackled. Farmers should contribute a membership fee of at least Rs200 per head and another Rs800 as share money in the revolving funds of the bodies. This should be augmented by a matching grant by the government. This revolving fund will increase with the passage of time when invested in agriculture inputs and services that earns money. Farmers could also be provided training, guidance, credit facility to start businesses locally to earn more money for their families.

Revenue collected from agriculture can/should also be spent on its development. Cooperative bank, that has been revived, should also fund these entities once these start functioning. Banks could also be asked to be a share-holder in the business,” Shah added.

According to Khan, the seeds research farms in the province have developed high yielding wheat, maize and fruit and vegetable seeds but their timely and easy availability has always been a problem. “When quality seeds, fertilisers and pesticides are not available to farmers, they have to use substandard, often dangerous, inputs. This explains the rampant low per acre crop yield in the province.”

“So far the government has failed to streamline the seeds’ distribution. It has not been able to check and crackdown on substandard seeds in the market,” Shah said.

In villages, he said, the government needs not invest that huge amounts on buildings for the purpose. Rather Hujras or empty houses, available in plenty there, can be utilised.

“The AIPCs will surely modernise and commercialise the subsistence and outdated farming when expert advice, machinery and marketing support is provided to growers,” said Israr Bacha, a farmer.

Tahir Ali: Revival of agriculture in Post-flood KP

Revivial of agriculture in POst-floods Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Revival of agriculture in Post-flood KP

Reviving agriculture in KP
By Tahir Ali
Dawn (Monday, August,22, 2010)
REHABILITATION of farmers and revival of agriculture in the post-flood Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is likely to be handicapped for want of enough funds.

The cash-strapped provincial government has neither received any support from the centre nor has the international community provided the required fund for the purpose.

To cope with the devastation, the PK government has asked the centre to provide an initial amount of Rs10 billion.

The floods have inflicted enormous devastation. Official estimates put the losses to crops, livestock and irrigation system at Rs12 billion, Rs7 billion and Rs10.6 billion respectively. Some other sub-sectors of agriculture have also suffered loss of a few billion rupees.

Murad Ali Khan, president Kisan Board Pakistan, said the flash-floods have not only destroyed standing crops and orchards in Charsadda, Nowshera, Peshawar, Swat, Dir, Shangla, Dera Ismail Khan and other districts, but also made lands uncultivable due to accumulation of mud and water.

In Lakpani area of Barawal in upper Dir, hundreds of acres of agricultural land worth billions of rupees have been washed away by the ravaging floodwater.

This soil erosion is likely to lead to legal fights over ownership of the farmland holding up cultivation till the settlement of disputes.

The destruction of irrigation infrastructure, like the Munda Headwork that irrigated around 0.3 million acres, is also a serious blow.

“With the main irrigation infrastructure destroyed and canals to remain closed for repair, there would be water scarcity for the next crops. This would mean little wheat crop,” added Ali Khan.

Director Irrigation Muhammad Naeem Khan said the losses to irrigation infrastructure in all the ten major canal systems in KP amounts to Rs10.6 billion. “The department is trying its best to do the necessary repair and cleaning work to restore water availability within a month,” added Naeem.

Abdur Rahim Khan, secretary general of the KP chamber of agriculture, said farms will have to be cleaned from mud and leveled for cultivation. For the purpose, the government will have to provide sufficient support. That would not be an easy task keeping in view the fact that it would require sufficient funds, machinery and personnel.

The floods have also damaged the livestock sector. An official of the livestock and dairy development department said the floods have killed 0.15 million heads of animals.

The farmers have been deprived of an important source of income. It would also lead to shortage and increase in prices of meat and milk.

“The breaking down of the communication system prevented farmers from transporting their farm produce to markets and these decayed in trucks on way or in fields,” Khan added.

The disruption in supply of vegetables and fruit to market has also resulted in food inflation. The prices of vegetables, meat, fruit, wheat-flour and other food items have increased by about 30 to 100 per cent.

An official in the KP’s ministry of agriculture said that all the affected districts are the main sources of wheat and maize, fruits, vegetables, sugarcane, rice, and livestock production.

The wheat subsidy is Rs14.08 billion for this year. But it may need an increase due to a drop in local wheat production and increase in the import bill.

Farmers have demand that the government should immediately restore the communication system; address the critical problem of demarcation and rehabilitation of fields and irrigation network. For this purpose, the government must arrange for tractors and other field leveling machinery to the affected farmers.

The escalating debt burden of farmers also needs immediate attention. Farmers need to be provided free or subsidised agriculture inputs and fodder for their livestock. Agriculture loans of farmers should be written off or at least interest thereon should be waived. Easy farm and non-farm loans should be extended to small farmers to restart their businesses.

Farmers in the flood affected areas also need exemption from riverine and abiana for a couple of years.

Teachers' visits at Students'

Home visits by teachers

By Tahir Ali

Attaullah always took keen interest in his studies. He was regular in class and was popular in fellow students as well as teachers. But then he bagged inconsiderable marks in his 10th grade examination. He felt alienated by the treatment of his father over his poor result. He was remorseful for wasting his time. Life lost all charms for him. Dejected and enraged at himself, he indulged himself in activities that were detrimental to his time, studies and goals. He thought it was all over for him. But then a teacher visited his home a few times and talked to him and his parents.

 “Reflect on your habits, priorities and activities. Think as to which were the things that distracted you from studies and wasted your time. Also know about the things and habits that had proved useful during any stage of your academic career. Avoid the distractions and follow the plus points.....,” he told him.

That lifted his spirits. Attaullah started working with a new zeal and commitment. Later, he won two gold medals in his career.

The above story illustrates that a hardworking, committed and friendly teacher can transform a student’s life. There can be tremendous interest in this home-visiting model provided these are carefully planned and effectively executed. These have the potential to improve low performing schools and provide an opportunity to build relationships with families that go a long way towards success of educational endeavours.

Though teachers’ visits to students’ homes usually follow problematic student behaviour or an urge on part of the school and teacher to ensure success of the students, an interested and committed teacher can spot pretty early on which are the students who might face some challenges and problems needing intervention and guidance.  

Teachers’ visits can turn around weak students and schools. They give personal touch to the teacher-student relationship and create a sense of importance and confidence amongst students. They not only help build good inter teacher-students relationship and love but also give good information about the likes, dislikes, weaknesses and strong points of the students and teachers, which are crucial for educating the children satisfactorily. Poor performing children can excel with compassion, kindness, and some one-on-one help.

Educational experts say students do better if teachers, schools and students and their families act in unison. Our teachers need to come out of their ivory towers and be more friendly and close to their students and their parents if we hope for a better learning environment at schools.

Teachers may be lacking vital information about their students, and meaningful opportunity on part of the teachers to engage with their students and their families can solve the problem.

These visits and conversations not only help build a relationship with the parents and congeal one with their children, they also can create many other possibilities. For example, the teacher learns a ‘funds of knowledge’ from the parents and gets an insight about the prevailing situation at students’ homes, about students’ peer group, his neighbourhood behaviour and the way he deals with the situation.

Even though well-intended, these visits have both the potential to become a source of strength as well as trouble for the students and teachers. For example, there is the problem of reluctance on part of the teachers, especially female ones, and resistance on part of the parents towards this phenomenon.

Educators don’t want to be unwarranted guests and female teachers especially feel vulnerable to visit the homes of their adult students. Though parents usually like to be contacted for their children, sometimes they too resist these visits as encroachment and interference.

So, the visits should not be made mandatory for teachers, students or families. What then is to be done to make all these go for this highly beneficial practice: Teachers and educational administrators should be given financial and professional benefit for each visit they make. Parents and their studying children should receive stipend and educational credits on these visits respectively.

These incentives, rewards and chastisement and conditional cash transfers for teachers, parents, and schools will help foster friendly environment at the visits. We also need to ensure that training and a respectful structure is provided, and that visits don't just target troubled students.

One important reason for the success of the Parent Teacher Home Visit Project, a successful project run by teachers' union, school district, and a community group run in parts of USA since 1988, is that teachers are compensated for their time if they choose to participate voluntarily

The main problem is where will the funds come from and who would organise, supervise and evaluate the work of these bodies.

The thousands of Parents Teacher Councils (PTCs) functioning in public sector schools could make the task of organising, supervision and evaluation quite easier. Over and above, the national commission for human development (NCHD), that has huge budget with little practical impact, cannot find worthier business to pursue.  

Good communities create the foundation for great schools. In transforming public schools into the hubs of their communities, teachers and principals should play lead roles, supported by mentors, counsellors, media personnel and media outlets.

As far the funds, the government may allocate some funds for the project. If not, then the funds available with the NCHD and PTCs –the latter are given considerable funds for repair and maintenance of schools each year0- could be utilised. Similarly, grants and donations by public and private sector and by local or foreign NGOs could be used to fund these kinds of visits.
There should be no problem of resources. Various foreign bodies such as USAID, UNESCO and the like or the funds available with the NCHD could be utilised for the purpose. Anyway they are worth investment, because home visits can have far-reaching effects.

Besides, the project can be easily carried out by graduate teachers, especially female ones who are naturally more sublime and careful in dealing with students. It doesn’t require a psychological expert to do this as almost each working teacher is an expert in public dealing. However, for making and maintaining track-record of the meetings and findings of these visits and implementation and effects of these findings certainly warrant a short training. This can be done by plentiful public or private colleges, universities or the provincial and regional training institutes in the country.     

Writer email: tahir_katlang@yahoo.com