It’s a tale as old as time. Despite being celebrated as the backbone of the country, the farming community is always expected to languish in abject poverty as ill-thought-out policies and corporate greed continue to make millions at its expense. The skyrocketing cost of electricity compounded with the government’s nonchalance to abolishing targeted subsidies (thanks to IMF’s stinging conditions), however, made tens of thousands of farmers from all over Punjab pull their socks up; blow the dust off the Kisan Ittehad flags and head towards the citadel. Enough had been enough, they proclaimed. While their demands remain more or less the same, which the cash-strapped state would probably not be able to fulfil, the fact that Islamabad could not care less about a storm knocking at its front door speaks volumes about the raging apathy. Containers and barriers were believed to do the government’s job and when Interior Minister Rana Sanullah gruntingly showed up, he failed to leave an amicable impression. The disgruntled members of the Agri community have refused to move until their conditions are met. Quite a valid point, indeed, because no matter how hard the authorities may try, they cannot hide behind the finances every single time. The international money-lender did not hold a gun to their head and force them to fail in containing the black marketing of fertilisers, particularly urea, which was until recently, traded like gold dust. Similarly, removed-from-reality was the decision to raise taxes on a sector already reeling under the phenomenal hikes in prices of literally every input. ]If the ruling coalition has magically whipped up a secret formula to feed our nation; employ approximately 35 million Pakistanis and oil the wheels of the largest (and most noteworthy) manufacturing industry, it should gladly enjoy gloating from the high walls. But if our economy is still shambolically undiversified as yesterday, lending an ear to the aggrieved protestors is the only way out. Having lost about half the cotton crop and nearly 40 per cent of the workforce to the monsoon season already, we are in no state to shut our doors on the remaining sugar and wheat growers. Definitely, between rock and a hard place. *