Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek has launched “Save Our Invaluable Rural Assets: Campaign against Corporate Control of Dairy and Livestock Sector in Pakistan.” As part of the campaign, PKMT is relaying 3 radio messages from Mast FM 103 Multan. PKMT is campaigning for control over its invaluable biodiversity against corporate control. Currently, small and landless farmers are the main producers and suppliers of natural, pure, fresh milk. This is being now contested under the imperialist corporate policies of western countries. Green revolution, followed by World Trade Organization (WTO) and its agreements such as the TRIPs agreement, and now the SPS and TBT are creating havoc for peasants.
In Pakistan, two agricultural resources are of critical importance, one is wheat and the other livestock. This sector is a direct source of income for small and landless farmers, especially for women farmers. Livestock can be considered farmers’ ‘bank account’ as well as an important source of daily income for household expenses. But now multinational companies are on the verge of grabbing this asset from small and landless farmers, putting an end to their livelihood by promoting unsafe packaged milk. Nowadays, advertisements are propagating that fresh, open and natural milk is harmful for health, even though this milk has been the guarantor of our health and livelihood for centuries. Our government’s responsibility is to improve the current system for milk production and consumption, and not to establish corporate monopoly in the livestock and dairy sector, facilitating them in taking away the livelihood of farmers. Further, the Government of Pakistan should promote the national food sovereignty principle and not put it at risk at the hands of corporations. Pakistan is the fourth largest country in the world in milk production and nearly 94 percent of small and landless farmers are involved in this sector; now, multinational companies related to livestock and dairy sector want to eliminate the livelihood of small and landless farmers. Under anti-people imperialist policies, institutions such as the World Bank provide financial support to these corporations so that they can control the economies of these countries. Therefore, we must come together to protect rights of our farmers, our country’s invaluable rich assets that include our livestock, seeds, agricultural commodities and milk of healthy and balanced food derived from our country’s rich assets, livestock, seeds, agricultural grains, milk and milk-based foods.
