ISLAMABAD/ RAWALPINDI
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Farmers Wing has termed the federal budget 2026–27 as anti-farmer, anti-agriculture, and disappointing for the rural economy, stating that agricultural loans, specific subsidies, and the hollow incentives announced in the budget cannot serve as a substitute for a comprehensive agricultural policy. Before the budget, the data presented in the Economic Survey contains several contradictions.
This was stated by Khalid Nawaz Sadhraich, Central Secretary Information of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Farmers Wing, while addressing an emergency press conference held today along with Senior Vice President of the Wing and MNA Mian Ghous, MNA Khurram Shehzad Virk, Central President Punjab Farmers Wing and MNA Awais Jhakkar, MNA Brigadier (Retd) Aslam Ghuman, and MNA Dr. Azeem-ud-Din Lakhvi.
The Farmers Wing leaders said that agricultural growth for 2024–25 was first shown as 0.56 percent and later revised to 1.53 percent. They questioned why this change was made and demanded clarification from the government.
They added only two years ago, the agriculture sector was achieving a growth rate of over 6 percent, while major crops were growing at around 17 percent. “Today, this growth rate has fallen to only 0.65 percent”, they mentioned adding that a sharp decline in cotton production, cultivated area, and the ginning sector has become a major threat to the national economy, exports, and rural employment.
They maintained that continuous increases in the prices of agricultural inputs, including Nitrophos and SSP fertilizers, have significantly raised the farmer’s cost of production.
A decline in tractor production and sales proves that ordinary farmers cannot afford modern agricultural machinery. They said that the exemption of duties on agricultural machinery is feared to benefit large landowners and importers instead of small farmers. They added that due to rising poverty in the country, consumption of milk, meat, and pulses is decreasing, which is a dangerous sign for food security.
The water crisis has become a national security issue, while both floods and droughts are continuously damaging the agriculture sector. The wing’s leaders criticized that no effective and comprehensive relief package has yet been announced for farmers affected by the 2025 floods.
They maintained that Pakistan imports around 90 percent of its edible oil requirements, which poses a major threat to food self-sufficiency. Rural youth are rapidly moving away from agriculture, while the budget includes no effective plan for Aggrotech, a Startup Fund, or modern agricultural financing.
They were of the view that despite claims of increasing agricultural exports, no serious attention has been given to cold chain systems, Global GAP certification, MRL standards, and export infrastructure.
The government is trying to hide the weaknesses of the agriculture sector behind the relatively better performance of livestock. The current budget does not present any comprehensive strategy for providing relief to farmers, increasing agricultural productivity, creating rural employment, or boosting agricultural exports.
The Farmers Wing leaders termed the proposed facilities in the federal budget as mere “lollipops,” stating that no clear, large-scale, and direct relief has been provided for farmers in fertilizers, seeds, diesel, electricity, agricultural tube wells, machinery, cotton, wheat, rice, and livestock sectors. ‘Agricultural costs are continuously rising, but there is no strong policy for crop pricing, market access, storage, processing, and export facilities”, they mentioned.
The PTI Farmers Wing leaders said according to the government’s own figures, agricultural growth remained only 2.89 percent, while food exports declined by about 1.5 billion dollars, including a 1.1 billion dollar decline in rice exports.
Mian Ghous and Khalid Nawaz Sadhraich said that these figures prove that the current economic policies are harming both farmers and agricultural exports. MNA Khurram Shehzad Virk and Central President Punjab Farmers Wing MNA Awais Jhakkar termed the current federal budget extremely disappointing for farmers, laborers, rural economy, and agricultural production, stating that once again the government has practically ignored agriculture, which is the backbone of the national economy.
The PTI Farmers Wing demanded that the government provide relief on agricultural electricity and diesel, restore targeted subsidies on fertilizers and seeds, introduce a clear support policy for wheat and cotton, introduce a special tariff for agricultural tube wells, reduce taxes on agricultural machinery, and launch an interest-free easy agricultural loan scheme for farmers.
PTI Farmers Wing also demanded the Cotton Revival National Emergency Program.
The demands also include the launching of investment modern irrigation projects and water storage infrastructure, crop insurance system, aggrotech Fund for rural youth, cold chain and agricultural export infrastructure, national program for self-sufficiency in edible oil, strengthening of agricultural research institutions and universities and a farmer-friendly and sustainable agricultural policy.
