There are many millions of small farmers in Pakistan who grow crops, catch fish, rear poultry or keep farm animals but they consume almost everything they produce. Their cost of production is also higher which ultimately reduces their profit margin. Sometimes farmers do a lot of manual labor themselves due to which sowing or harvesting is delayed. They may be able to produce only tiny surpluses to sell in the local market or to exchange for tools, medicines or other essentials. Other farmers are capable of producing surpluses but find it difficult to transport them to a market or a roadside stall. Most farmers produce small quantities for sale but find that the local trader is only prepared to pay low prices for their goods compared with the support price announced by the government. As individual farmers they have little bargaining power with traders/middleman and must often accept almost any price offered. Large-scale farmers do not suffer from these problems. They can produce large quantities of each crop of a consistent quality standard. For this reason, they have no difficulty in attracting buyers and receive the true market price for their output. The only way small-scale farmers can compete with these large farms is to promote collectivization and co-operate with each for group or collective marketing.
After two years of SAFBIN program in Pakistan, some farmers in Sargodha and Khushab had started adopting collective marketing, collective nursery, and collective harvesting strategies and receiving the benefit of low production cost and higher prices for their output. SAFBIN Program is encouraging these types of activities, and farmers are realizing the need and benefits of mutual co-operation and collectivization. This is helping farmers to develop closer relationships with local markets and their fellow farmers.
Few initiatives around collectivization included collective harvesting of millet crop by ten farmers (10) in the last week of October 2020 in village 39/DB, district Khushab. These farmers helped each other in harvesting and saved additional labor and managed timely cultivation of wheat crop. Average millet production of these farmers was 1200 Kg per acre. The farmers sold out millet grain in the market @ PKR 3500 per 40 Kg and earned good profit. The crop residues added to soil fertility and were also used as fodder for livestock.
Ten (10) farmers from village 40/SB district Sargodha and fifteen (15) farmers from village 38/DB district Khushab first time experienced group marketing of paddy and wheat in November 2020 and April 2021 and turned down exploitation behavior of the buyer or middleman. At time when paddy and wheat was harvested, the farmers tried to sell individually but buyer was not willing to buy the paddy and wheat due to low quantity. The buyer also did not want to buy as per support/market rate. These farmers decided to go for a group marketing of paddy and wheat to attract the buyer. On an average each farmer produced 1200 Kg of paddy and 900 Kg of wheat. Altogether their total production, which grew to 12000 Kg for paddy and 13500 Kg for wheat was quite enough to attract buyer’s attention as per market rate. These farmers successfully sold out their paddy produce @ PKR 1800 per 40 Kg and wheat grains @ PKR 1900 per 40 Kg and earned good profit. Another ten farmers from village 40/SB, district Sargodha collectively raised one paddy nursery for transplantation. This helped them to save water, labor and other cost.
SAFBIN Program played a very important role in sensitizing and encouraging farmers in doing collective harvesting, sowing and marketing etc. VRPs regular interaction with farmers helped promote this idea of collectivization. SAFBIN has laid the foundation for promoting collectivization and farmers are very thankful to SAFBIN program for always helping and facilitating them.
