Changing agriculture profile
By
Mohiuddin Aazim
June
20, 2011: THE annual development plans of Punjab, Sindh and
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa envisage enhanced spending on farming,
livestock and fisheries in the new fiscal year starting July
1.
While devolving the ministry of agriculture to the provinces
under the 18th Amendment, the federal government has also
set aside some funds for farming projects.
The federal government has set aside Rs2 billion for the
Benazir Tractor Support Programme and Rs500 million for Crop
Loan Insurance. These allocations are in addition to Rs33.2
billion allocated to water sector projects, several of which
would directly or indirectly benefit agricultural activity.
The Punjab government has made a cumulative allocation of
Rs18.5 billion for agriculture, livestock, forests, food and
irrigation. Sindh has earmarked Rs6 billion for these
sectors excluding forests but including fisheries. And
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has allocated Rs335 million for
agriculture and another Rs6.7 million for forests.
All these allocations are aimed at boosting growth in
agriculture and allied sectors at a time when climatic
change threatens global food security—and governments across
the world look for sustained ways of feeding their
populations. Several countries including China and Saudi
Arabia are even leasing in large chunks of foreign lands to
grow food crops.
“Currently, Pakistan is facing a two-pronged challenge in
agriculture. First is to rebuild the infrastructure (damaged
by the last year’s floods). And the second is to produce
more to achieve self-sufficiency in food and improve food
trade balance,” said a senior official of Sindh Agriculture
Department.
He said that spending on agriculture and allied sector
projects of annual development plans of the provinces are
generally aimed at increasing the crop yields and improving
farm-to-market transportation. But some are also directed at
efficient distribution of irrigation water, soil management,
availability of quality seeds, prudent use of fertiliser and
more scientific ways of farming. “The bottom line is to
increase the per acre yields.”
According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan, major crops
showed some growth in the per acre yield in FY11. The per
hectare yield of wheat, for example, rose7.7 per cent
followed by sugarcane (6.9 per cent) and cotton (2.5 per
cent). This happened due to soil enrichment after the floods
but also because of better farming techniques and scattered
and more frequent use of modern technology. “The challenge
now is to sustain whatever growth has been achieved in
whichever crops,” according to a ministry of food and
agriculture official, “and to obtain higher per unit yields
in other crops like rice, maize, gram and pulses.”
Whereas officials believe that financial allocations in
provincial ADPs and federal government initiatives can do
that, agriculturists attach some ifs and buts. Out of the
Rs18 billion plus allocation shown under the head of
agriculture and related sectors only Rs3.4 billion is
exclusively meant for agriculture. “This is too little money
and I fear much of it will be finally consumed by a
30,000-plus army of agriculture department personnel,”
remarked Mr Ibrahim Mughal who heads Pakistan Agri Forum—a
farmers’ lobby group.
“During the next fiscal year, Punjab would generate Rs43
billion through sales’ tax on various agricultural inputs.
Why not earmark a certain percentage of it to be spent on
agricultural development,” he wondered.
He and some other agriculturists contacted by Dawn suggested
that the fund so created should be spent by an advisory
board comprising members from the government and
representatives of farmers “to make spending transparent and
meaningful.”
A Sindh-based rice grower Ghulam Sabir said that all efforts
to enhance the per acre yield of crops would be frustrated
if post-flood rebuilding task is not completed immediately.
“In Jacobabad there are many fields still filled with flood
water and several roads and link roads are yet to be
repaired,” he told Dawn on telephone.
Financial allocations in Sindh and Punjab ADPs for
development of livestock and fisheries sectors are such that
can set the stage for tapping the growth potential of these
sectors. For example, Sindh government is going to set up a
dairy village and meat processing zone in Bhambhore, just 78
km from Karachi seaport.
Under the plan, milk-processing plants, chilling units, feed
mills, a livestock and fodder market, slaughter houses and a
meat-processing unit will be built over 1300 acres of land.
Similarly, ADP allocation for fisheries sector in Sindh is
designed to be integrated with a three-year fisheries and
aquaculture strategy.
According to an official of Sindh fisheries department,
plans are under way to build new chilling, storage and
processing facilities in Karachi, Thatta, Badin and Dadu. In
addition the provincial government has also set aside funds
for fishing gears, modification of boats and manufacturing
of ice boxes and plastic crates besides improving existing
facilities at Karachi fish harbour. Privately, some
fishermen have started fibre glass boats instead of wooden
ones to increase the spell of hauling and to lengthen
on-boat preservation of fish.
Punjab food department has purchased some steel silos from
the US for hygienic storage of wheat and is trying to get
such silos manufactured within the country. Pakistan
Agricultural and Storage Services Corporation is working on
a project with the financial help of Islamic Development
Bank for manufacturing steel silos to boost its storage
capacity.
Farmers across the country have been trying, with help from
within the community as well as from foreign governments and
NGOs, to upgrade agricultural practices to fetch better
prices for their produce at home and abroad. In some
villages of Sindh and Punjab, they have started using solar
energy to run tube wells and more enterprising growers are
even using solar-fired wheat threshers on experimental basis
to reduce wastages. The potential for growth in food
producing sector is enormous. The government and the private
sector need to join hands to tap it under a strategy to
integrate all developmental initiatives in this sector.
Courtesy: The DAWN