Kissan Board Pakistan (KBP) President Chaudhry Shaukat Ali Chadhar, after meeting a five-member delegation of farmers from Balochistan, called upon the government here on Friday to waive off loans of rain- and flood-hit farmers of the country.
The delegation was led by Kissan Board Balochistan President Mir Rasheed. The delegation apprised Chaudhry Shaukat Ali about the problems facing farmers due to recent rains and floods.
Chadhar said that recent floods had badly affected the agricultural economy, which was already facing problems due to increased prices of fertilizers, electricity, petroleum products and gas.
Standing crops on an area of 400,000 acres of land in Balochistan, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Azad Kashmir had badly been damaged.
He expressed apprehension that there was a possi-bility that 33 per cent less sugarcane production would be obtained as rains and winds had cast nega-tive impact on the crop.
Farmers were facing a lot of difficulties in paying loans and have no capital for cultivation of wheat and other crops in coming sea-son.
He demanded the government to declare flood-hit areas as calamity-hit areas and waive off loans of farmers.
He said that financial assistance should be provided to farmers for cultivation of wheat in coming season.
