The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) has strongly criticized the provincial government’s agricultural deregulation policy, warning that unchecked middlemen are driving crop prices down while reaping massive profits at the expense of struggling growers. During a high-level meeting in Hyderabad, SAB leadership revealed that farmers have suffered losses amounting to tens of billions of rupees over the past two years.
| Issue / Metric | Current Market Impact | SAB Statement / Assessment |
| Market Exploitation | Middlemen buying cheap, selling expensive | Policy incentivizes “cash-rich and exploitative” intermediaries. |
| Two-Year Financial Loss | Tens of billions of rupees lost by growers | Caused by unmonitored middleman practices and knee-jerk policy shifts. |
| Price Disparity | Food inflation reached 29% | Crop prices sold by farmers declined or remained flat despite inflation. |
| Subsidy Reach | High input costs remain unmitigated | Only ~15% of small growers actually receive government input subsidies. |
Key Demands & Policy Warnings
- Incentives Under Threat: Rising prices for key agricultural inputs combined with stagnant or falling crop rates are actively discouraging farm investment, leading to unsustainable operational losses.
- Double-Edged Market Impact: Unregulated markets paired with crop export restrictions force farmers into low sale prices while consumers continue to pay exorbitant retail rates.
- Call for Urgent Intervention: The board urged the Sindh government and the Competition Commission of Pakistan to curb price manipulation and resume official crop price fixing until a fair regulatory framework exists.
