12- AGRICULTURE

With a view to dismantling the feudal system in Pakistan, MQM is in favour of limiting the ownership of agricultural land. This is necessary to establish an egalitarian system in the country and until such time that the feudal system is totally eliminated the following actions are necessary:

• There has been an immense progress in the agricultural sector in the world on a scientific basis but in our country agriculture is the most outdated sector of its kind.
  
• In our country 70 percent of the total population is involved in agriculture but the poor peasants who cultivate the land are treated like slaves. The feudal lords are the sole beneficiaries of the agricultural produce. After their round the clock labour the poor peasants get just about enough to survive.
  
• In the development of the feudal culture many other problems have been created in the country. Due to the contemptuous feudal mentality, hundreds and thousands of acres of land are not being cultivated because the feudal have more land then they need and they cannot, and do not want to cultivate their entire holdings. They are still not prepared to hand over their land to peasants for cultivation of food and other necessities. The situation causes a great loss to the nation. Patriotism demands that whosoever holds surplus land and is not in a position to put it under cultivation, they should either cultivate this land in the interest of the country or distribute such surplus land to the peasants free of cost or at an affordable price.
  
• With this in mind, MQM wants the Government to take such steps that the landowners would cultivate all the land they possess. If they fail to do so then a "non-cultivation tax" should be levied on every single acre of land not cultivated and this tax should be collected for the benefit of the peasants.
  
• MQM wants that the government to take steps and ensure that every single inch of cultivatable land should be cultivated with a view to increasing the agricultural productivity so that the nation becomes self-sufficient in food and other agricultural produce. This would also enable us to export our agricultural produce.
  
• To achieve this increase in agro-products, all available resources should be put to use to mechanise agriculture on modern scientific methods. In this regard the foremost objective of all concerned is to provide education about agriculture to the peasants. To achieve this, the Government with the co-operation of non-governmental and social organisations must start a campaign for adult education in villages for the peasants and their families. In this regard there should be an appeal to educated young people to come forward voluntarily. Moreover, some basic and easy courses on scientific farming are to be made available to the peasants.
  
• The development of industries in areas relating to agriculture should be enhanced. For instance the fertiliser factories, agricultural machine tool factories and similar industries should be established in the rural areas. For making the country self-sufficient in agricultural produce it is essential to raise the living standard of the peasants. MQM wants to end the exploitation of peasants and stamp out the use of forced labour which is tantamount to slavery in villages. To achieve this MQM wants peasants working on the land of feudal lords to be recognised by the law as agriculture labour or farm labour. New labour laws should be introduced in this regard and strictly enforced.
  
• It is MQM's policy to provide peasants with a share of the agriculture produce on similar grounds as the industrial labour in town gets a share in the profits from industries.
  
• MQM is in favour of levying tax on agricultural income and wants to improve the system of collecting 'Ushr' tax in the country.
  
• An effective system of monitoring agricultural loans procured from Banks and other financial institutions should be introduced. This is because the feudal lords often use agricultural loans for their personal use rather than agriculture.
  

WATER LOGGING, SALINITY AND IRRIGATION SYSTEM

MQM desires that immediate attention must be paid to updating the irrigation system and the cleansing of canals etc. to increase the agricultural produce. With the consensus of all provinces, and keeping in mind the agreed formula for the distribution of water, new canals should be dug to cultivate barren land. A system for the disposal of the surplus water from the canals is to be strengthened so that the water level should not rise.

A comprehensive plan needs to be introduced for solving the salinity and water logging problems and in this connection the maximum number of tube wells should be installed.

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