LAHORE, March 9: Farmers from all over the country will protest on March 23 to highlight their plight. The decision was taken by the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee, a conglomerate of nine farmer bodies, on Tuesday.

A conference will be held in Toba Tek Singh to highlight worsening condition in the country's rural areas.

The meeting noted with regret that out of 96 million acres in Pakistan, only 50 million acres were owned by people. The rest of the land had been given or being granted to civil bureaucrats and serving and retired generals, it alleged.

The farmers said there was disparity in water allowances for farmers, as Faisalabad and Toba Tek Singh got water at the ratio of 2.64 cusecs per 1,000 acres, Multan at 3.50 cusecs and Dera Ghazi Khan and Rahim Yar Khan at 7.50 cusecs."

The figure, they said, spoke volumes for disparity in the water distribution. To make the situation worse and heighten sense of deprivation among the farmers, the government charged flat rate of abyana (water cess), they added.

The participants also regretted that feudalism had ruined the country to a great extent. Around 8.4 million families still owned land between one to 25 acres, whereas 200,000 big families owned over 20 million acres. Ground realities were even worse, they said.

They demanded that the government must restrict the land ownership to 25 acres in irrigated areas and 50 acres in rain-fed areas. In spite of around 70 per cent population living in rural areas, the country was importing 1.5 million ton wheat, 250,000 ton sugar and huge quantities of edible oil and other food items.

It was largely because of the fact that the government was ignoring the agriculture sector, they said. The farmers demanded that the government must rationalize water distribution and abyana charges, besides providing clean drinking water, health and education facilities in rural areas.