Le Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee a tenu son 4ᵉ Congrès fédéral à Lahore, élisant une nouvelle direction et annonçant une mobilisation nationale contre l’agriculture industrielle, l’accaparement des terres et la crise agraire croissante.
The project dreamt of transforming dunes of Cholistan into farmlands by contracting out vast tracts to private companies who were supposed to vanguard a corporate farming revolution. But the companies involved are disillusioned, with one foot already out the door.
Agriculture and livestock are fast emerging as priority areas under the umbrella of Pakistan's Special Investment Facilitation Council and, last year, a Saudi agribusiness firm signed an agreement to cultivate 5,000 acres of alfalfa fodder for export.
Sudan proposed a trilateral partnership to combine Sudan’s fertile land, Pakistan’s agricultural expertise, and Saudi investment to launch impactful joint ventures.
The Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC), Anjuman Mazareen Punjab (AMP) and Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (HKP) jointly raised their concerns over the alleged state sponsored push for corporate farming, widespread land grabbing, and the forced eviction of peasants from lands they have cultivated for generations.
The "Green Pakistan Initiative" is fast tracking Gulf agribusiness deals. Saudi & UAE firms are investing billions in Pakistani farmland, while local communities warn of land grabs & water shortages.
Participants strongly rejected the ongoing evictions of small farmers in the name of the Green Pakistan Initiative, military-backed agribusiness ventures, and the operations of companies such as Fongrow under the facilitation of the Special Investment Facilitation Council.
Peasant unions, including the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC), have announced a nationwide protest on April 13 to oppose the so-called Green Pakistan Initiative, which they claim is a front to open up the country’s agriculture sector to corporate farming.
The government’s corporate farming policies have led to the allocation of lands to private companies and investors, which has led to more transnational agribusiness corporations entering into different agricultural ventures.
Les politiques gouvernementales telles que l’Initiative Pakistan Vert et l’agriculture industrielle ont conduit à l’attribution de terres à des entreprises privées et à des investisseurs, et de plus en plus de grandes entreprises agroalimentaires transnationales entrent dans diverses entreprises.
Las políticas del gobierno, como la Iniciativa Pakistán Verde y la Agricultura Corporativa, han llevado a la asignación de tierras a empresas privadas e inversores, mientras que más corporaciones agroindustriales transnacionales ingresan a diferentes proyectos.
A large contingent of policemen, including elite force personnel, were sent to subdue peasants protesting for two days against the government’s decision to reallocate 528 acres of their “ancestral land” — cultivated by them for nearly a century — to a private company.
