Hundreds of farmers gathered at Bhit Shah in Pakistan’s Sindh province on Sunday, February 16 to launch a sustained campaign against the government’s attempts to promote corporate farming in the country. A recently announced project would build six new canals on the Indus River. The farmers’ conference claimed the project will cost the livelihood of thousands of small farmers and adversely affect the local environment.

The farmers gathered under the banner of Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC) linked with the left-wing Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (HKP). They raised slogans against the so-called Pakistan Green Initiative (PGI) launched by the state a day earlier and adopted a resolution demanding its immediate withdrawal, along with the scrapping of the new canal project.

The farmers’ conference claimed six new canals on the Indus would affect the natural flow of the river and devastate its delta region by converting it into a desert. They also stated that the project would displace thousands of small farmers from their lands and widen the rift between the provinces of Sindh and Punjab.

Controversy over government-backed GPI 

Ammar Ali Jan, leader of left-wing HKP, also claimed that the Cholistan canals project, as it is called, will destroy the local ecology, displace farmers, and affect the relationship between provinces.

The farmer’s conference resolution called the GPI “anti-farmer” and accused the Pakistani government of “selling the country’s resources and compromising national integrity” by “succumbing to the IMF” dictates.

GPI was launched on Saturday by the chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province Mariyam Nawaz and Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) general Asim Munir as a joint project of the government and the army.

The project is behind initiatives such as Green Agri Mall and Service Company which is expected to provide farmers with high yield seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and fuel at a subsidized rate. It will also rent out expensive farm equipment, such as tractors and drones.

A total of 5,000 acres of land would be converted into “smart agri farm.” It will be irrigated with fresh canals built on the river Sindh (Indus) because the project is based in the Cholistan region which is mostly drought prone and arid. The government is also plans to establish a research facility under the project which it claims will help resolve issues of agricultural production across the country.

Promoting corporate interests 

Ammar Ali Jan called the project “yet another fraud that promotes corporate farming and military interests at the behest of farmers.” Jan also claimed that the project would create divisions across the farming communities in Punjab and Sindh over the use of the river water.

According to the Dawn newspaper, the Cholistan project was first envisioned as a promotion of corporate farming in 2023, and was aimed at inviting Gulf investment in agriculture. The Pakistan army has a hold of thousands of acres of both “barren” and “fertile” lands under the project as well, the newspaper claimed.

Organized farmers have underlined that point, claiming small farmers will lose their land under the project because it is designed to benefit the big agricultural families, the army and the big corporations.

The canal project has caused concerns about the rift between provinces and the future of Pakistan’s federal polity, particularly due to the federal government’s failure to consult Sindh’s provincial government before finalizing the project.

PPP warns of a mass uprising against the Cholistan project

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led government in Sindh has openly opposed the project, despite being the main backer of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s federal government in Islamabad.

PPP has claimed that the proposed canals would take away Sindh’s share of water and divert it to the GPI project. This could lead to frequent droughts in the province, severely affecting the local agriculture and economy. PPP also claims the project was finalized without consulting the provincial government and hence it goes against the federal principles in the country’s constitution.

The party has threatened that a popular uprising against the project could be launched if it is not withdrawn soon.