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Agri support prices to
protect farmers will continue
FAISALABAD -Shafi Niaz, Adviser to Chief Executive on Food,
Agriculture and Livestock has disclosed that the government
has decided continuation of support prices for wheat, cotton,
rice and sugarcane to protect the farmers community.
Inaugurating a national seminar on 'Deregulation of
Agricultural Price" here Saturday, he said that policies
governing agricultural sector are currently going through
metamorphosis. He said that all countries are making efforts
to adjust themselves according to the commitments made by
their Governments under World Trade Organisation (WTO),
Agreement of Agriculture (AOA).
He said that the AOA commitments are to be required to be
implemented by member countries by 2004 through reduction of
import and export related tariffs and gradual dismantling of
support and subsidies, by reducing public expenditure on
agriculture. The adviser said that the agreement envisages
that food security can be enhanced if developed world stopped
stimulating production through price supports and export
subsidies.
He said that promoters argue that this will provide the market
access to the developing world and would also raise developing
countries foreign exchange earnings. " This scenario is rosy
and shows a brighter picture for the future through enhancing
comparative and competitive advantage both for the developed
and developing world ", he observed and added that we would
have to increase our productivity and efficiency to become
internationally competitive.
He said that the major concerns of our agriculture are not
only the market access but also the lack of production
capacity to achieve and benefit from new trading opportunity.
Shafi Niaz explained the agreement of agriculture in the light
of WTO guidelines and said that it may be divided into three
categories namely market access, domestic support and export
subsidies. About market access, he said that ordinary tariffs
are to be reduced by an average 36 per cent by the developed
countries and 24 per cent by developing countries by December
31, 2004.
However there are no significant imports, minimum access to 3
per cent of domestic consumption in 1986-88 was to be
established for 1995 to be raised to 5 per cent by the end of
December 31, 2004. About aggregate measures of support (AMS),
he said that its calculations include all domestic sports
policies having significant affect on production both at the
product and sectoral levels. Similarly, the export subsidies
which have a major source of this distortion and trade dispute
have also been addressed under the AOA.
He said developed counties are committed to reduce the value
of subsidy export by 21 per cent and expenditure by 36 per
cent during 1995-2000. Similarly, for developing countries,
reduction commitment in terms of export subsidies are 14 per
cent and 24 per cent for value and expenditure respectively.
Shafi Niaz said that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has
done a detailed exercise for working out the AMS for our
commodities for which support is being provided.
He said that ministry has intimated that in its scheduled of
commitment to WTO, Pakistan have indicated that wheat, cotton,
rice, and sugarcane, onion, potatoes, gram, soybean, sunflower
and sunflower are covered under support price systems. However
this list has now been reduced to only 4 crops, wheat, cotton,
rice and sugarcane in pursuance of the latest decision taken
by the Chief Executive in its meeting in the 1st week of May
this year. Continuing the adviser said that in its schedule of
commitments the AMS in case of Pakistan was negative, thus
within the de-minimise limits.
The analysis of import-export parity prices for important
commodities for the last 3 to 5 years indicates that domestic
support prices have been considerably below their
corresponding border prices. The adviser said in view of the
recent development in economic policies and WTO commitments
there is a need to further develop indigenous competencies,
expertise and institutional capacity to address the emerging
policies issues.
He said that before making policies, there is need to fully
analyse facts and figures giving different options for
decision-making. In this connection, he underlined the role of
agriculture universities in general and UAF in particular.
He said that they can help, interalia, in studying the
developments in other countries and analyse the movements in
the commodity prices in the world markets to ascertain our
export competitiveness and even in exploring new market.
He said that my own assessment is that economic research in
these institutions needs to be greatly strengthened and
improved "Similarly teaching ability has to be upgraded, which
would mean strengthening the staff in quality and probably in
number" he added.
The Advisor also lauded the role of Agriculture Price
Commission and said that it has developed expertise in
analysing price policies and other relating issues in the
country.
Shafi Niaz reiterated that our policies and programmes should
be towards improving agricultural growth. He said that to
achieve this objective, it is the farmer who is to be helped
and his interest should be protected so that he has reasonable
earning.
Earlier, in address of welcome, Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Riaz
Hussain Qureshi highlighted the role of agriculture in
national economy and said that agriculture potential should be
directly interlinked with farmers earnings as well as with
international commitment. He said that Agriculture University
has visualised this important issue and holding national
seminar to work out the modalities for the deregulation of
agricultural prices as committed by the Government of
Pakistan.
However, in this process the legitimate interest of the
farming community should also be safeguarded. Vice Chancellor
said that University is trying to inform the agricultural
experts, scientists and legal persons about the details of WTO
and its impacts directly link with agricultural economy. He
supported the government policies for giving the subsidies on
agricultural commodities. Chairman, Agriculture Price
Commission, Islamabad Dr. Abdul Salam and Director Research of
the University Dr. Jahangir Khan Sial also address the
seminar.
November 2, 2001
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