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.
The Pakistani side will provide land for farming and industry, labor, and other related facilities, while the Chinese side will provide technology and investment and will buy chilli from Pakistan.
The Special Investment Facilitation Center has asked the Ministry of National Food Security and Research for an update on the invitation sent to the Almarai company of Saudi Arabia to invest in farming in Pakistan.
Pakistan's army is taking over vast swaths of government-owned land to grow food but the moves are fanning concerns about the powerful military's pervasive presence in a country facing economic collapse.
