Pakistan farmers threaten wheat cultivation boycott over 'unethical' farm tax

In a development reflecting rising rural frustration at mounting economic pressures in Pakistan’s farm belt and potentially spelling a world of trouble for food security in the cash-strapped nation, Sindh’s largest agricultural body said it would mount a legal challenge against a new 45 per cent income tax on farm earnings, branding the levy “unconstitutional, illegal and unethical”.

The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) warned of a widespread boycott of wheat cultivation in protest, escalating tensions between farmers and the provincial government.

The chamber convened in Pakistan’s Hyderabad on Tuesday (July 22) under the leadership of its patron-in-chief, Dr Syed Nadeem Qamar, to formalise its response. It alleged the tax was introduced under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with the move drawing strong resistance from growers who argue that poor returns on crops leave no room for additional fiscal burdens, Dawn reported.

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Farmers attending the meeting said they were struggling to receive adequate prices for their produce and slammed the government’s tax move as unjustified. The SCA responded by instructing farmers across Sindh to refrain from paying the new tax, adding that if authorities attempted arrests, “millions of other farmers would also court arrest.”

“We are ready to face imprisonment, but will not pay the agricultural income tax,” the group’s leaders declared. Participants vowed full-scale defiance, comparing their treatment unfavourably to industrialists, who they said had been granted tax exemptions. The SCA also declared a boycott of wheat cultivation for the 2025-26 season, citing inadequate support prices.

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Instead of sowing wheat, the SCA said farmers would switch to alternative crops such as mustard, nigella (kalonji), sunflower and other oilseeds. The group said growers were unable to recover their costs due to low wheat prices and declared 2025-26 a “boycott year” for the staple crop.

The chamber also raised alarm over a 40 per cent decline in cotton output, forecasting a total yield of no more than four million bales. It said that although the Sindh agriculture minister had pledged a support price of Rs11,000 per maund, farmers were currently receiving just Rs6,500.

The SCA called for the immediate removal of an 18  per cent local tax on cotton and demanded a 25 per cent tariff on imported cotton to encourage domestic production. At the same time, it voiced concern over the surging cost of key inputs, noting a PKR 22 per litre jump in diesel prices and a PKR 600 increase in DAP fertiliser per bag over just a fortnight.

Such rising costs, paired with stagnant farmgate prices, were pushing cultivators to the brink. The chamber warned that this squeeze signalled a “deliberate destruction” of the agricultural sector and called on the authorities to reverse the price hikes on diesel, fertiliser, seeds and pesticides immediately.

Farmers were urged to register for the government’s Benazir Hari Card via local administrative offices to access welfare benefits. The chamber also demanded that existing subsidies of PKR 10,000 per acre– currently applied to sunflower and canola– be extended to mustard and rapeseed crops as well.

The meeting included senior figures from Sindh’s farming leadership, including Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority Chairman Kabool Khatian, general secretary Zahid Bhurgari and agricultural organisers from across the province.