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Seed corporation's sale on donors'
agenda
By Nasir Amin
After the provincial food departments, the Punjab Seed
Corporation is the next target of the world donor agencies
insisting on the introduction of open market forces in the
agriculture sector of the country, it is learnt.
Various multinational companies operating in the seed business
are exerting their pressure on the government through the
donor agencies for the privatization of the PSC, the Asia's
largest seed supplying company. Sources say that the step will
be taken in the name of projecting the local private sector in
the trade though the local firms have no required scientific
system and experience for seed research, multiplication,
processing, storage and quality control.
There are over 500 registered private concerns active in the
field. They fear that after the disbandment of the public
sector institution, the local farmers will be left at the
mercy of the multinationals which are already fleecing them in
the sale of pesticides and seed.
This step coupled with deregulation of the irrigation sector
will leave no room for the farming community to face the
challenge of the WTO regime, they add. The PSC, established in
1976, is the only public sector institution which is providing
certified seeds to farmers of all the four provinces without
getting any financial aid from the government.
It is also earning foreign exchange through the export of
seeds by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, and
is also meeting the seed requirements of the World Food
Programme. Sources in the corporation say that the PSC is also
supplying quality seeds to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran and
Afghanistan.
They say India had tried to capture the Asian market through
cheap supplies but failed as its seeds could not give the
projected yield in Bangladesh,and afghanistan. The private
concerns are marketing cotton seed of various quality at rates
ranging from 5000 to 8000 per bag in the local market, while
the PSC is supplying international standard seed at 4,000 per
bag.
Kissan Board President Sadiq Khakwani has at a forum stressed
the need for strengthening the PSC instead of privatizing it
in the larger interest of the farming community. He says the
presence of the corporation is necessary to save the farmers
from fleecing by the multinationals and hoarding by the local
private firms.
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Pakissan.com;
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