Nangarhar farmers demand rise in import duty on vegetables

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): Farmers in eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday asked the government to increase tax on vegetable imports to improve the market of domestically produced crops.

The farmers say they work for months in fields growing vegetables, but their harvests are sold at low prices in the market due to high imports of the same from neighboring countries.

Malak Muhabbat Khan, a farmer in Surkh Rod district of Nangarhar, said that high prices of fertilizer and low rates of vegetables they grow had discouraged them.

“A farmer works for months to grow vegetables in a season but when they ripe, the same are imported from Pakistan which affects the price of our home-grown crops, he said.

Haji Dehqan, a farmer from Kama district, said that farmers would stop cultivation of vegetables if import duty on Pakistani crops was not increased.

He said many farmers had sold their farmland for residential buildings due to low income from their farms.

Mashal Rahimi, a farmer from Batikot district, complained that the tax on fertilizer, improvised seeds and other agriculture materials imported to Afghanistan was high despite they benefited farmers but the tax on imported vegetables was low. “Farmers are affected in both cases,” he added.

A provincial council member of Nangarhar, Asshab Wali Muslim, also said that homes had been constructed on large areas of farmland in Surkh Rod and Behsud districts and the process would continue if problems being faced by farmers were ignored.

Nangarhar agriculture director, Inamullah Safi, acknowledged the issue but said that vegetables produced by farmers could not meet the requirement of the whole country. He said that increasing tax on vegetables would affect the public.

“We are not self-sufficient, if we become so then the problem would be definitely solved, now we work on how to become self-sufficient,” he added.

Nangarhar farmers say the high amount of assistance coming for farmers and the agriculture sector was not spent properly.

Mds/ma