Landowners ready to lease farmlands to foreigners

Wheat fields Koper (NWFP) Pakistan (Photo courtesy of zuluzuianski)

Dawn | 14 February 2010

By Riaz Khan Daudzai

Contrary to all apprehensions across the country regarding corporate farming, a favourable environment is awaited in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) as the land owners and progressive growers in the province see no harm in leasing out vast farmlands to foreign investors.

Two years ago, the Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture, NWFP was contacted by investors from the Gulf states through a letter showing interest in acquiring farmlands on lease under the corporate farming being introduced by the government.

The Gulf countries including Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia, China and Germany have also shown interest in the projects of corporate farming which include fruit juice plant, production of furfural from sugarcane bagasses (husk), cattle farming, meat processing, dairy farming, fisheries, horticulture, off-season vegetables production, sunflower hybrid seed production, solvent oil extraction from rice bran, production of mutton through raising of sheep and goats, animal feed mills and paper board from local fibre.

The Board of Investment (BOI) has planned to lease out 9.1 million hectares of farmland to foreign countries and multinational companies in the four provinces. In the NWFP, farmlands in Kohat, DI Khan and Hazara divisions may be leased out to foreign investors.

It is said the idea of corporate farming is not new as it is already envisaged in the Companies’ Act 1984. But the present government started serious work on the concept in 2008 after a friendly Gulf state showed enormous interest in the same. It has aroused fears among the farmers in the Punjab, who think it will only create poverty and dislocate thousands of families.

But in the NWFP landowners and progressive growers say that the vast stretches of farmland lying barren for years in the province may be brought under cultivation through corporate farming.

Abdul Rahim Khan, a progressive farmer and general secretary of the Sarhad Chamber of Agriculture, has said they were considering the letter from the Gulf investors and they would definitely favour corporate farming for better future of the province.

To a question he said, “There is no risk in it as we will only lease out our lands we are unable to use.” We are not selling out our precious lands to the foreigners, he added.

It will bring new technology to our outdated farming industry which we cannot acquire because we lack capital, he said.

It may also bring under cultivation over three lakh acres of barren land in DI Khan and a vast chunk of such land in Kohat besides creating thousands of work openings for the indigenous population.

But these measures can prove detrimental for the poor peasants and land owners if appropriate protective measures are not taken by the government. And we look towards best options in the corporate farming for we will welcome it, Abdul Rahim Khan said.
  •   Dawn
  • 14 February 2010
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