LAHORE, Dec 29: The government has failed both farmers and consumers due to its ill-conceived policies, Ibrahim Mughal of the Agri Forum said here on Friday. Addressing a press conference on Friday, he said that inflation had increased prices of basic food items and cost consumers a staggering additional amount of Rs110 billion.

On the other hand, he said farmers paid Rs28 billion extra for the agriculture inputs as compared to last years.

He said it was not only farmers and consumers, who had a hard time because of policies, but the government also suffered badly, adding it ended up importing food items worth Rs124 billion despite being Pakistan an agriculture country.

One wonders who is benefiting from these policies except for import mafia, he said. Of late, a new mafia has overtaken decision-making in the country, he said, adding the panacea they found for every food crisis was to import additional quantities. He said they prevailed in 2006 and ordered import of food items worth Rs124 billion. The figure shows the ever-increasing role of this mafia, he said. Instead of finding faults with the system for declining production and removing them, they suggest import and win, he said.

Pakistan, Mr Mughal said, is the third largest producer of milk in the world, but it still imports milk products. This is a lamentable situation, to say the least, he said. Because of these wrong policies and skyrocketing prices of inputs, he said the country had failed to achieve cotton target this year.

He said the country also lost production of rice, gram, vegetables (mainly potatoes, onions and tomatoes) and oil seeds. The total loss touches Rs45 billion in a year alone, he said.

During the last three years, he said import of fertiliser had increased by 166 per cent. In spite of this bleak picture, he said no major initiative had been taken for the fertiliser sector in the last three years. Pesticides’ import costs the country Rs15 billion every year, he said.

This gloomy picture suggests the country has been overtaken by a mafia, which has some interest in converting it into a ready market for foreign goods, he said.

The agriculture is shrinking in every conceivable way, he said and added: “Agri growth rate in the 80s remained at 5.4 per cent. It was 4.4 per cent in the 90s. The rate went down to 2.5 per cent in the current decade. It will go down further if present trends continue.”

On the other hand, he said the government had delayed vital decisions on construction of dams. It must forthwith start constructing all possible dams, including Kalabagh, he said.

The government should check exorbitant profits by seed and fertiliser companies, which are as high as 150 per cent, he said.