This is a warm and sunny day in June in village Chakdada of Subdivision Alipur, district Muzaffargarh in South Punjab. The high fertility of this land is evident from the flamboyant colours of sprouting fields here. Situated at the verge of river Chenab, this small village has a population of 2100 people with 300 households. Agriculture is the major source of income.
At 50 C, the burning rays of the sun don’t dampen the exuberance of the 240 farmers sitting in a congested compound of a local school. Today they are getting a package of agricultural inputs and this makes them ecstatic. This package comprising of DAP (fertilizer), cotton seeds and urea is distributed amongst the farmers with 2.5 or less acres of land. Last summer, the floods claimed a terrible toll on agriculture and related livelihoods. ‘The flood waters were 4 feet high and everybody moved out,’ says Zeba Mai a resident of the village. ‘Everything was razed to the ground, even the big trees fell,’ she says.
Muhammad Yar is 67 years old and has two sons and two daughters. The daughters are happily married. One of his sons is a milkman while the other one is a student of engineering in Lahore. He had to sell one acre of land out of his total 3 acres to pay off the university fees and expenses of his son. “I will not have to dispose off more lands to pay for my son’s education. I will instead make a profit out of cotton crop. My life is even better than what it was before the floods” he said. The seeds I used to get from the dealer were of extremely poor quality. The double price of seeds coupled with the interest rate has always kept a foot on my neck, he added. The idea of providing agricultural inputs to these po
or farmers is to enable them revive the fertility of their lands. “I migrated to Karachi to earn bread and butter for my children. The one acre of deteriorated land was useless and a lot of money was required to revive its fertility. With these agricultural inputs I shall be able to cultivate my lands once again and buy livestock” said 67-year-old Mai Zeba.
Kareem Bakhsh is old with impaired eye-sight. He is a responsible father of 3 daughters. He says ‘God showed you the way to our village. God willing my crops will flourish once again’.
In desperation, farmers have to obtain seeds and fertilizers from the “loan sharks/dealers. These dealers offer seeds/fertilizers to those who do not have money to buy fertilizers from open market. The going interest rate is 200% on the principal amount payable on purchase of fertilizers. The terms of agreement bind the farmers to sell their produce to dealers who lend them fertilizers. It is a vicious cycle.“The quantum of interest keeps multiplying every year. It generates more and more debt, making it harder to repay the debt” said Ali Raza, Programme Manager, Awaz Community Development Services, UNDP Implementing Partner in the area.
The beneficiaries of agricultural inputs are committed to work hard. They are highly motivated as they start to plough their lands to sow the cotton seeds. “We were struck by the calamity, which completely decapacitated us. It made us redundant, wiping away with enthusiasm the drops of perspiration on his forehead, it is our turn to prove now that we win” said Atta Muhammad, a young man with 7 family members.
Based on the need assessment and identification, the preference was given to the poor and most deserving flood affected farmers. 990 households have received these agricultural inputs so far. These households are the ones with less than 2.5 acres of land. The intervention was carried out in 112 villages in South Punjab under the UNDP Early Recovery Programme. The idea is to restore the livelihoods and related assets of the poor communities. One of the imperative objectives is to extricate the poor farmers from vicious entanglement of loan sharks. Agriculture is the cardinal source of income, restoration of which leads to the improvement in living standards of local communities. UNDP aims to replicate the same activity as and when the need arises.
***************************************
By
Zeeshan Ali Tahir
