To be paid in October

Minister of “Agricultural Jihad” Ghulamreza Nuri Kazalegi on Thursday (Shahriwal’s first day in office) promised that the government’s debt to wheat farmers will be repaid to them in October this year. On Thursday, Shargh newspaper announced that the government’s debt to wheat farmers was “more than 11 trillion tomans”.

“Since the formation of the government, payments to wheat farmers have been semi-official and we have been looking for sources,” Gholamreza Nouri Qazaljeh said on a television program, according to Iran’s Sadar and Sima news agencies, adding that the government’s remaining debt would be repaid in October.

The government minister, Masoud Mezikian, did not explain how and with what financial resources the huge debt to farmers would be repaid in less than two months.

In recent months, the Islamic Republic authorities have repeatedly promised to settle accounts with wheat farmers, but have yet to do so. The issue has sparked protests from farmers, including their rallies.

In this regard, according to the channel of the Coordination Committee of Cultural Organizations of Iran, on Wednesday, August 31, dozens of wheat growers in Kermanshah once again gathered in front of the provincial government building to protest against the non-payment of their demands and the low price of wheat.

Meanwhile, the Shargh newspaper announced that “autumn ploughing will begin in about 10 days in cold regions of Iran,” and wrote: “But farmers are left with nothing and have to go into debt to buy fertilizers, poisons, seeds and rent machinery.” »

The newspaper stressed that “the government owes wheat farmers a huge debt and has been delaying settlement with farmers until today and tomorrow,” and quoted the National Wheat Farmers Foundation, announcing that the government’s debt to wheat farmers exceeds 11 trillion tomans.

The report said, “Since farmers delivered spring wheat to the government on April 7 this year, the money for purchasing wheat has not been settled until the autumn wheat planting began.”

Shak noted that the government has purchased “more than 11.6 million tonnes” of wheat from farmers and that purchases are continuing, but there is no news on the money yet.

A farmer in Ardabil province told this newspaper that the government’s failure to pay farmers for wheat or delaying their wages has led to chaos in planting plans and a decline in agricultural efficiency.

He pointed out that no shop was willing to sell seeds, fertilizers or poisons to farmers on credit, a problem that put farmers under great pressure to sell their household items so that they can resume farming.

Another farmer in Semnan province told Shargh that rural families have lower incomes than urban families and farmers have no ability to save, and the government’s actions have put pressure on the livelihoods of rural families.

According to the report cited by the Statistical Center of Iran, the average annual income of urban households in 1401 was about 167 million tomans, and the average annual expenditure of urban households was estimated to be about 137 million tomans. This is because the average annual income of rural households was only about 98 million tomans, while the average annual expenditure of rural households was about 79 million tomans.

Wheat is one of the main strategic materials in the agricultural sector and plays an important role on the family table.

In recent years, the government’s debt to wheat farmers has been accompanied by protests from farmers. With each public protest, part of the debt has been repaid, but the government has still failed to properly fulfill its obligations in the wheat farmer sector. Wheat farmers “guarantee purchase” wheat.

At the same time, farmers are facing other problems that put them under greater financial pressure.

Ali Naqi Imani, vice chairman of the National Wheat Farmers Foundation, told Shakur that farmers were facing many problems in preparing fertilizers for the autumn crop and urea fertilizer was scarce in the market.

According to him, in the past two or three months, petrochemical companies have refused to supply agricultural service companies in order to raise the price of urea fertilizer, which has now risen by 132%. This is because the guaranteed purchase price of wheat has only risen by 16% this year.

He stressed that the same is true for other agricultural inputs, where farmers’ incomes do not match their expenditures and their economic foundations are getting weaker year by year.