The Indian lobby is hell-bent on destroying the potato growers economically by demanding duty-free export of Indian potato in Pakistan.

The voice was raised by the Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP), Okara Potato Growers Society (OPGS) and Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) during a press conference on Monday.

The growers said that there was no shortage of potatoes in the country, which was available at Rs 60 per kg in the open market, which was lower than the rates of all other vegetables.

“At farms, the potato is available at Rs 40 per kg while the per kg expenditure on potato cultivation was Rs 35. The 20 per cent of the potato crop harvested in December is still lying in fields,” they maintained. They said that the country will start yielding potato in the northern areas in June and millions tonnes were still lying in cold stores to meet year-long demand of the nation.

They said that the potato import from India on duty-free basis would destroy the cultivation in Pakistan and in the coming years the nation would be looking towards foreign countries for charity.

They appealed to the government not to import Indian potato as duty-free and must be imported with a 50 per cent raise so that the growers might not face losses. Dr Tariq Bucha, Ch Maqsood Jatt, Malik Qadir, Dr Afzaal Haider Rizvi, Khalid Khokhar, Haji Liaquat Ali and Salman Ashiq Chaudhry spoke on the occasion.

Source:- thenews.com.pk