Pakistani growers ‘exploited’

The standard of living of tobacco growers in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province of Pakistan has not improved, and they are as poor now as they were decades ago, according to a story in The Nation.

This was said to be the case despite the presence on and the dominance of multinational companies in the tobacco sector, and despite the promise of agricultural subsidies in the federal budget.

The Tobacco Farmers’ Welfare Association secretary general Zafar Malik said that the tobacco farmers of KP were already being harassed by ‘monopolistic buyers’ and that this trend was likely to exacerbated after the new budget. Local farmer Asad Khan, who was said to work in the field for 12 hours a day, said that he, as well as farmers like him, continued to be exploited by buyers from big tobacco firms.

“I inherited my agriculture land from my father in 2004 and, in hope of a better tomorrow, I took the decision of farming tobacco on my father’s land, who was originally cultivating sugarcane,” said Khan. “We shifted to tobacco in 2005. “However, a decade has gone by and our standard of living has not improved at all.” Khan complained that buyers from big multinational companies bought farmers’ crops at “throw away prices without giving us any room to bargain”.

He said that these buyers set their own buying prices, which were always below the market rate, but that farmers had no other choice but to sell to them at those prices.

“It is due to the monopoly of these big tobacco firms that we are not getting fair rate for our crop,” he said. But things are looking up a little.

“Fortunately, now we have other local manufacturers as well in the market to sell our crop to,” he said. “They give us leverage against these big tobacco buyers and because of them I have been getting better rate for my crop.”