Daily Times

Sir: More than 50 percent of Pakistanis are involved in agriculture. With fresh water and excellent soil, Pakistan has achieved great success in agriculture, becoming part of the top seven producers of chickpea, cotton, sugarcane, peach, mango, wheat and rice. Unfortunately, the agricultural output per acre of farmland, or total yield of farmland in Pakistan, is one third of what farms produce in developed nations. This is mainly due to the non-implementation of new agricultural technologies in Pakistan. In the past few decades, the government has only been able to introduce fertilisers and tractors across the country. There is not much work done on water management, soil management, greenhouses, sprinkler systems, GM crops and plantation methods, leaving our farmers with low yield from their farms but with increasing costs.

According to research at Harvard, low farm yield is the main force that increases poverty in a region. That is because if farmers can get more yield they will be able to earn more as well as hire outside help (creating jobs) to manage this extra yield. Similarly, for high yield farms, the farmer’s family is free to pursue their own careers, with most of them going into research, entrepreneurship and invention of new technologies, thus increasing the economic growth and cultural activity of the region.

Therefore, if Pakistan wants to become a developed nation within this decade, the government needs to work very hard on improving agricultural farm yield for all farmers. They should introduce new technologies and start research across Pakistan. The government should also ask the banks to provide loans to farmers for equipment and training, so that farmers may upgrade their farms and improve the farm yield.

SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER

Peshawar