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.
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.
Food companies, especially food exporting firms, are hoping that they can benefit from a recent regulation that paves the way for the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry to lease out agricultural lands that are not cultivated for two consecutive years.
A military-owned company will lease the land for 30 years through joint ventures and allocate it to investors for farming projects
Pakistan has offered Saudi Arabia a cattle farm in Punjab with 50,000 acres of land on lease for corporate farming
Pakistan is offering land with preferential policies, especially in areas prone to floods, as part of their efforts to support the chili industry and mitigate the impact of climate change
The Pakistan government has given the military a significant stake in a 4.8 million acre agricultural project in the Cholistan desert, raising questions over profits made from public lands and the impacts on small farmers.
