Advocating for small farmers in the Punjab region of Pakistan

Farmers market in Pakistan.

Photo: Peter Hovring, DanChurchAid-ACT

Church World Service and Punjab Lok Sujag (PLS)

Some 22,980 small farmers in Punjab Province, Pakistan, are taking part in an information-gathering project of Church World Service partner Punjab Lok Sujag to make the issues important to them known to policymakers and the media. The participants number among the more than two million marginalized farmers in Punjab who have to buy and sell in a marketplace controlled by global agricultural forces.

On average, small farmers in Punjab own about two acres of land and three to four cattle or buffalo. Family size averages around seven--generally the parents, four children, and an elder member of the family.

The farmers are beset by market forces and, though they work very hard, their agricultural output is bringing in less and less income. They are unorganized and have little understanding of the forces at work on their lives; a lack of understanding that leaves them with no voice in policy-making, resulting in massive poverty, unemployment, and migration toward urban areas.

The Church World Service-supported project is developing an understanding of the issues that small farmers face through information-gathering and focus group events. Once that happens, the project will educate the media and policymakers on those issues, and lay the groundwork for advocacy campaigns to effect change in agricultural policies.

Support for Church World Service helps make this program possible.

Updated 6/10/2008

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