Staff Reporter
Peshawar
Tobacco growing community of Swabi district has appealed to the higher authorities for relief after a heavy hail storm wreaked havoc on valuable crop last week. The tobaccos farmers urged Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and the office holders of Pakistan Tobacco Board to take note of the huge damage done to the crop and ensure relief for their suffering families.
Over the years, the tobacco-sector has been subjected to very heavy taxation but now at the time when the farmers are facing tremendous socio-economic challenges, they are being totally neglected. The local population rely heavily on this crop which is now damaged threatening survival of many growers.
The wellbeing of these agrarian communities promises to enrich the whole nation and increase the tobacco industry’s productivity. The government is urged to allocate revenues from the tax collected from the tobacco industry in form of Development-Tax, to address this critical issue urgently, and to revive these farmers’ capacity to cultivate a healthy crop, over the next year.
The Kashtkar Coordination Council urges the government to send a team of experts to visit the hailstorm-hit regions and determine the financial losses incurred by the growers and take measures to quickly revive the value-chain. Every sector and industry is being provided relief but the growers and those working in agricultural sector like us are being left out. The government must provide relief in taxes, ensure earlier payments from tobacco sector and extend low-cost, easy loans for growers and farmers.
He further added, ‘It is critical to complete the purchasing of tobacco-leaf within a specific time-period, to save the crop from rotting and becoming totally unusable.
