So Called Agriculture Country In Food
Crisis. WHY?
By
Zaib Altaf
Pakistan
has rich and vast natural resource base, covering various
ecological and climatic zones. About 27 percent of
Pakistan’s total land area is under cultivation.
Agriculture accounts 21
percent of GDP and employs 41 percent of labor force.
Agriculture is a vital sector of Pakistan’s economy. The
Agriculture sector directly supports the three-quarters of
country’s population, employs half the labor force, and
contributes a large share of foreign exchange earnings.
The irrigation system in Pakistan is considered to be the
world largest irrigation system. In spite of all these
available resources we are still facing food shortage in Pakistan.
Food is a basic requirement of human being and without
it people unable to survive. In all over the world, problem
of food shortage is increases day by day. Different factors
are involved in food shortage. The agriculture GDP growth
rate in Pakistan was only 1.5 percent in 2007, significantly
lower than the population growth rate (Pakistan National
Income Statistics 2008).
The 1989-90 to 2004-05 average growth rate was 2.3 percent
(Pakistan National Income Statistics 2007).On the other hand
it is estimated that average GDP growth rates in fast
growing middle-income countries average 4-6 countries.
“According to Pakistan Economic Survey 2005-2006; GDP of
Cotton is 10 percent and of Rice is 6 percent. One of the
basic reasons of food crises in Pakistan is soaring prices
due to gap in demand and supply of edibles. Due to water
unavailability mainly our Rabi crops suffered.”
Oxfam’s latest survey showed
that Pakistan amongst the 21 nation facing food crises due
to increasing prices of food commodities. So the problem is
that Pakistan despite being an agriculture country still
faces food crises…….
Different surveys reported
that being an agricultural country we are facing shortage of
food. It might be occurs due to following reasons: rising
energy prices, due to increased in cost of production and
foreign exchange holding by major food importing countries.
Lack of modern agricultural technology also became a reason
of today’s food crisis in our country.
Predictable weather also
played a main role in increasing food prices. Sometimes
sudden uncontrolled conditions e.g. drought, water shortage,
unfavorable weather conditions, flood e.t.c. could be a
reason in reduction in crop yield which leads to shortage of
food. It is estimated that price of wheat has been increased
from 15 rupees per Kg in Jan 2007 to 24-25 Kg in Jan 2008.
In order to bring down the
prices of food items so that an ordinary person get relieve,
we should have to take some steps like banning exports to
all food items including vegetables, pulses, fruits as well
as eliminating all taxes particularly the import duty and
sales tax on food items. Reduction in petroleum prices will
lead to reduction in transportation cost as well as
inflation.
It is believed that Agriculture scientists will have to
introduce modern technologies for getting high yield at low
price which helps the government to cope with the persistent
crises of food shortage in Pakistan.
The crises of food shortage
will be minimized by efficient management of available
resources e.g. usage of hybrid seeds, use of better water
management, increased role of government for ensuring
effective safety and support mechanisms.
According to 2005 Food and
Agriculture Organization of UN and AOSTAT, Pakistan is one
of the world’s largest producers and suppliers of the crops
included: Cotton, Rice, Wheat, Sugarcane e.t.c.
So, in order to protect our
country from food crises we should take long term measures
to attain the self sufficiency in the production of food
crops. Being an agriculturist it’s our duty to solve the
problem of food shortage in our country by use of latest
agricultural techniques.
April, 2013
Source:
Diplomatic Circle
