Farooq Tariq general secretary of Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee said, “This October 16, 2023, we, the peasants of the world, once again call to commemorate the International Day of Action for Peoples’ Food Sovereignty against Transnational Corporations. On this day, the global movement for Food Sovereignty denounces the control of food systems in the hands of agribusiness transnationals, a global corporate network that is intensifying the hunger of millions of people in the world, as well as the massification of malnutrition as a chronic disease of the new generations.”

Farooq Tariq said, “It is unacceptable that more and more people in the world are going hungry and that food insecurity is intensifying, affecting one third of the world’s population. The global crises and the great migratory displacements that affect millions of people and our peoples are concentrated in a scenario of climate and environmental crisis that affects the whole of humanity.”

He further said, “According to the World Food Program, 20.5% of the population is undernourished and 44% of children under 5 are stunted in Pakistan. The national nutrition survey 2018 showed that 36.9 percent of the population faces food insecurity.”

Riffat Maqsood said, "Pakistan government is promoting false corporate solutions and programs like “Green Pakistan Initiative”. It is a program to hand over the government lands to capitalists and landlords. Earlier, the Green Revolution of the 1960s handed over Pakistan’s lands to fertilizers and poisonous chemical pesticides. Now in the name of the second Green Revolution, government lands are being handed over to capitalists in the name of corporate farming. This will not bring an agricultural revolution, but food and agricultural commodities will become more expensive, inequality and class oppression will increase. If the government wants to bring an agricultural revolution, distribute government land free of cost to small and landless farmers.

For a country’s development and food sovereignty, comprehensive agricultural reforms and distribution of large government and non-government lands among small and landless farmers is essential.“Haider butt vice president of Haqooq e Khalq Party said,”Feudalism still exists in Pakistan and the parliament is totally dominated by them. They control thousands of acres of land. Instead of land reforms, the government has now opted for corporate farming and leasing government land to the army and corporate sector. We are totally against this neoliberal policies and demanding comprehensive land and agrarian reforms for the welfare of peasants snu small farmers“Saima Zia from Pakistan kissan Rabita Committee (PKRC) said,”We are experiencing an unprecedented food crisis. Our agricultural production, seeds, land, and territories are being monopolized; our peasant rights to income and a dignified life, to protest, and to the autonomy of our peoples are being violated. We are facing an unprecedented food crisis intertwined with the climate crisis, wars, corruption, media control, institutional racism, and neo-fascism. At the same time, we, the peasants, continue to be criminalized, displaced, and see our livelihoods and subsistence taken away.“Qammar Abbas, a youth representative of Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee said,”This year, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is hosting the World Food Forum from October 16-20, and we are concerned that large corporations continue to capture this space for their own interests. For this reason, together with our allies, on October 16, we mobilized once again to denounce the false solutions that corporate power, in complicity with many governments, is promoting and imposing to apparently solve these crises. Once more, we say no to agribusiness, no more false solutions and without Food Sovereignty, we will not be able to ensure a future for humanity"

Qammar Further said, “National food security policy of Pakistan is a crap with false solutions and total propagation of corporate agenda. Government is allowing and supporting corporate capture of food systems in Pakistan. Corporations are dominant in every sector of farming and agriculture.”

This year, farmer’s also celebrated 27 years of organized struggle for Food Sovereignty, a struggle that has now diversified and taken shape from the local level to form a powerful global movement.

Contact:
Qammar Abbas