Qila Saifullah farmers take a leaf from Spain's La Tomatina festival to stage unique protest

QILA SAIFULLAH: Farmers in Qila Saifullah city of the Balochistan district on Monday took a leaf out of Spain's La Tomatina festival to stage a unique protest against the low prices of agricultural produce as they threw tomatoes on the road and chanted slogans.

The Qila Saifullah farmers and landowners wasted all the tomatoes they had by hurling them on the city's major thoroughfare — connecting Quetta to Islamabad — and blocked the traffic.

The self-sufficient district, which produces apples, carrots, and green chillies apart from tomatoes and has one of the biggest produce markets, has final product from crops and other agricultural products readily available in specialised markets.

The upset farmers threw away hundreds of kilogrammes' worth of tomatoes on the road, effectively wasting them, to protest the prices that hurt their businesses. They led a demonstration rally from the city's Sabzi Mandi and stopped at the city's Junction Chowk.

According to the farmers, tomatoes imported and smuggled from Iran and Afghanistan had significantly crashed the tomato prices. They demanded that tomato imports and smuggling from border points such as at Chaman, Torkham, and Taftan be immediately banned.

The farmer lamented higher costs, saying tomatoes were being sold Rs50-100 a crate in Sindh, Balochistan, and Punjab, whereas an empty wooden crate was priced at Rs60, excluding other expenses.

They voiced their woes at the fact that they worked hard the entire year and, right at the time of bringing their produce to the market, tomatoes — as well as apples and other fruits and vegetables — imported and smuggled from Iran and Afghanistan flooded the market, pulling down the prices and effectively wiping out their profits.

This, they said, was the economic murder of the landowners and farmers. They further demanded that the federal government immediately halt the policies hurting the farmers, ban smuggling, and offer subsidies.