Afghan growers said they while they have transported their products to Kabul, now the buyers in the market are not paying them. Therefore, Farah farmers on Wednesday again called on the relevant Afghan government agencies to help farmers find markets for their agricultural products. They also called on President Ashraf Ghani to abide by the commitments he made to the farmers.
The growers said that the Ministry of Commence and Industries has also failed to convince Pakistan to open the crossings with neighboring countries to export fresh fruit.
“We call on the president and the Ministry of Commerce to come and see our situation. It's enough now, they should wake up from ignorance and deep sleep, the entire farmers in Farah are devastated,” said one watermelon grower.
The lack of a domestic market for watermelon farmers in Farah has left them with no option but to sell their products at the going rate -Afs1 per kilogram (US$0.013)-, a problem that existed last year and remains unchanged despite the government’s promises to export the watermelon abroad.
The growers took a large part of their products to the city of Herat, which is close to Farah, where traders sell it for Afs4 per kilogram.
Hundreds of trucks loaded with watermelon were brought to the city of Farah on Tuesday by the farmers to protest the “lack of the government’s attention” to their plight. They called on the government to find a market for them. They also said that they were encouraged by the government's help last year to increase their yield.
The Chamber of Agriculture and Livestock has said that the current situation of fresh fruit and watermelon in markets is "concerning" and there is a prediction this year that Afghanistan will harvest more than 900,000 tons of watermelons and the majority will be wasted because of lack of markets.
Tolonews.com also reported that the Farah growers said that hundreds of tons of watermelon were wasted last year, leaving them with heavy financial losses.
