ISLAMABAD: Rice exporters on Saturday, vowed to promote decent working conditions and improve livelihoods of small farmers, farm labor and families of rice transplanters in the entire rice value chain of Southern Punjab in order to better equip them to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have trained 150 families in Southern Punjab who are associated with rice farming regarding Covid-19 safety measures and also provided them decent working conditions, food packets, shelter, Personal Protection Equipments (PPEs), first aid boxes, solar systems, fans, water cooler, desert cooler and stationary items for their kids,” said Rice Partners Limited (RPL) Chief Operating Officer (CEO) Muhammad Ali Tariq.
He said RPL wants to provide a decent working environment to the labor involved in the plantation of rice adding that RPL has established mother community centres for the children of rice transplanters with the support of Mars Foods which helps keep children away from farms during the transplantation season while keeping them involved in learning activities.
He said that during the current year, RPL has established childcare facilities at both the farm and community level. Such child care facilities take care of the children of rice transplanters while their parents work at the farm.
.Muhammad Ali Tariq said that RPL which was established in 2011, is a social impact business that works with thousands of growers of basmati rice in Punjab in order to help them enhance their production yields adding that more than 100,000 families in Southern Punjab benefit from RPL.
Manager Sustainability Zafar Iqbal said that the women involved in the growing of rice play a key role in its cultivation and contribute towards food security.
He said that rice transplanting is carried out every year from mid-June till the start of August when temperature remains between 37 degrees centigrade to 45 degrees centigrade adding that usually all members of the families take part in the work of transplantation.
He further said that conditions on the farm are highly hazardous and expose children to several risks of insect bites, injuries, infections, exposure to extreme heat and pesticides adding that RPL is working to ensure a safer environment for such kids.
