Daily Times

Vice President of Pakistan Businesses Forum (PBF) Ahmad Jawad has lauded the effort of the Prime Minister that the government has chalked out a comprehensive agricultural transformation plan “for the very first time in the country’s history. Even the seed of bhang is worth US$12 in the international market and encouraging its lawful export will help in curbing its illicit trade,” he said and added that bhang plantation is 10 times more fruitful than profits from the sale of drugs.

He shared that the CBD or cannabis oil is being sold at Rs10,000 per litre in the international market. Similarly, we have to focus on enhancing per acre yield of crops by adopting better farming techniques and have to develop weather-resistant seeds for different crops.

Pakistan is gifted with enormous potential to grow but the resource constraints are forcing it to secure more loans to run its affairs and at the same time developmental allocations are reduced as a matter of routine every year to make room for compulsory expenditure.

In this backdrop, the two-pronged strategy of Prime Minister Imran Khan to focus on industrialization and agricultural growth is the best approach to address our financial and economic difficulties.

Jawad said It is satisfying that the Government has embarked upon an ambitious programme to develop agriculture on modern lines at a cost of Rs. 110 billion over three years and to boost agriculture credit by 80pc to Rs2.7 trillion for almost doubling the grain harvest, increasing fruit and vegetable production five times, and trebling milk output.

Pakistan has fertile land and a vast irrigation system but crop productivity is very low as compared to other agricultural countries mainly because we ignored proper research and development. There is no doubt that the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) has been slowly working hard to introduce new and better varieties of various crops especially wheat, rice, maize, cotton, and pulses but unfortunately, they are not provided enough marketing to carry out its activities on the field at the optimum level.

The commitment of the Prime Minister to invest heavily in good quality seeds and pesticides, credible research and development and technology transfer is reassuring and one hopes it will be followed by a substantial increase of funds for the purpose.

There is also a plan to import semen for free distribution among farmers to boost livestock productivity, supply subsidized fertilizers, increase the number of crops grown and encourage fruit and vegetable production.

These measures apart, there are other serious issues that need immediate attention of the Government. Agriculture experts point out that high cost of production; low average yield and low-quality produce are jointly providing space for imported products to occupy our local markets.

These issues are making Pakistan uncompetitive in the international markets and also affecting the welfare of local consumers adversely. There is also a tendency to use fertile agricultural land for the establishment of housing societies besides cutting fruit trees on large scale.

The United Nations predicts that the world will need to increase its food production by 70 percent by 2050 to feed a population expected to rise from 7 billion today to 9 billion.

This is particularly so in the case of Pakistan, the population of which has crossed 210 million and it is projected to grow to over 380 million by the year 2050, surpassing the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia to become the world’s third-largest country behind India and China.

The situation calls for major investment in problem-solving research, production technologies, rural infrastructure, capacity building of stakeholders, agriculture-based vocational institutions and incubators, and public-private partnerships to help revitalize the agriculture sector.

China has a greater population and less arable land but has been able to take care of the food needs of its people by focusing on farming production and efficiency.

China and Pakistan have already arrived at an understanding to enter into meaningful cooperation in agriculture under the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and what we need is proper utilization of the opportunities offered by this understanding.

A collaborative framework should be prepared on war footings in close coordination with federal and provincial agriculture ministries/departments, PARC, and agriculture universities. At the same time, work on the construction of all feasible water reservoirs should be undertaken to guard against water shortages for irrigation.

Ahmad Jawad also demanded of the government to get rid of the cartelization in the seed and pesticides sector.

In this regard agriculture pesticides act 1992 and Seed Amendment Act, 2015 needs to be reviewed in detail and necessary punishment may be proposed by the parliament to end the cartelization with the strict enforcement laws.