Pakistan is an agricultural country. But tomato comes from Iran, other vegetables also sometimes come from India and sometimes Afghanistan sells us fruit. What kind of agricultural country is this, in which every year we have to buy wheat from abroad at high prices, a large population of which is facing food shortage? In this country, Allah has given us all types of weather, deserts, green fields and high mountain peaks, but why have we not been able to solve the problem of lack of food for our people, agriculture is the most important because the whole country. The share of agriculture in the national product (GDP) is 22.67 per cent and its share in the total employment is 38 per cent. This is very less in terms of the resources that this earth has. Unfortunately, despite having agricultural land, the yield of crops per acre in our country is very low.
There are several reasons for this, the most important of which are a lack of government interest, distance from modern technological development, and absence of research and technology.
Low investment, rising interest rates and lack of government-level training programs for farmers and landlords. Low production is hurting Pakistan’s agriculture as well as the economy. We have already seen that necessities’ prices have exceeded the purchasing power of most consumers and our exports have also declined. Every government has played with agricultural lands.
It is necessary to ban agro-pharmaceutical companies whose medicines are destroying the land and crops.
Large housing societies have been built on agricultural lands where food was produced for millions of people. Today, there is not even a single tree to offer shade to the people.
This cruelty was done with a lot of planning. Imran Khan banned new societies on agricultural lands as soon as he came to the government. Suddenly, big industrialists started investing their money in real estate, and the ban was lifted. Imran Khan announced tax amnesty.
It was said that you will not be asked from where you got the land and by what means, a large number of people benefited from the amnesty and the lands bought at the price of the poor became legal in all respects, on which then Imran Khan During this period, housing societies started to be formed.
But Imran Khan is not the only hand in destroying agriculture. While setting national production targets for agriculture, livestock, fisheries and forests, our decision-makers have not made any major policy to revive agriculture and other related sectors.
I request the government to make at least a 10-year policy for the agriculture sector, including experts from abroad and discuss technology transfer. A committee of technocrats should be constituted for this purpose.
It should include technical experts as well as academics trained from abroad in the field of agriculture. Wheat, cotton, livestock, milk and beef, and fisheries must be focused. Deforestation should be made a crime. The forest area should be increased and severe punishments against deforestation should be added to the Pakistan Penal Code.
The soil of Pakistan is fertile, but this soil is being destroyed. There is a need to increase the fertility of the soil by using modern machinery and technology. Availability of agricultural machinery at subsidized rates should be ensured along with the timely supply of high-quality seeds.
Irrigation systems should be further improved and farmers should be helped in bringing water to the fields through drip irrigation because the less the water is wasted, the more, our future will be saved.
The quality of herbs should also be evaluated. A functional testing laboratory is also needed to control adulteration. It is necessary to ban agro-pharmaceutical companies whose medicines are destroying the land and crops. If we want to save Pakistan, we have to save agriculture. If there is more destruction in the agriculture sector, it will be difficult for us as a nation to avoid destruction.
The writer is a teacher of DELTA, The Change Agent and can be reached at aminwastoo@gmail.com.