Daily Times

LAHORE: Agriculture sector holds the central place in the economy of Pakistan, contributing 21 per cent of the national revenue, while its growth has fallen from 0.19 per cent and production of crops also fell by 6.25 per cent during the current year.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar revealed on Thursday that government will release an inclusive package for the agricultural sector in the budget for the year 2016-17 in order to elevate the decline.

Pakistan is rapidly adapting to a services economy from agriculture economy and governments both provincial and federal are not paying much attention to this crucial sector.

On one hand, sugar and wheat productions are augmenting by 4.2 and 25.48 per cent, respectively, while on the other hand production of other important crops like cotton, rice and maize are reducing by 27.8, 2.7 and 0.3 per cent.

Ishaq Dar revealed an economic survey during a press conference saying, “We can’t afford a setback to the agriculture sector and will take collective measures. It’s a very big challenge for us.”

According to the finance minister, oil prices and low global commodity are the main reasons behind decline of agricultural sector. “The improvement is basically in transport and communication. The banking sector has done quite well, consumption and government services have increased,” he added.

He told that the cotton decline has caused the major drop in the percentage of gross domestic product growth by 50 per cent of overall decline of agriculture sector.

Similarly, rice and maize productions have also reduced to 6.81m tonnes from 7m tonnes and from 4.93m tonnes to 4.92m tonnes respectively. The growth of other crops also dropped from 3.09 per cent to 0.31 per cent last year.

Since last budget year all the crops have reduced in growth, production and revenue generation instead of causing rise in growth of sector.

Budget 2015-2016 facilitations

Last year’s budget 2015-2016 introduced Rs 1.5 billion for research and development projects and for the Ministry of national food security. Also subsidy for import of urea by Trading Corporation of Pakistan was allocated that alone accounted for Rs 2.5 billion. Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) was allocated with a subsidy of Rs 10 billion for wheat and Rs 1.3 billion for carriage subsidy on sugar’s export.

Immense Package for farmers

A substantial package for farmers named ‘Kissan Package’ was introduced by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the convenience of farmers that alone worth Rs 341 billion. The package was comprised of guaranteed loans and tax breaks for poultry, fish and dairy farming sectors.