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Corporate
farming vs land reforms
The frequently talked of, but
much-feared by, landless farmers is the corporate farming
which is to become a reality in Sindh. That is not to be the
outcome of a federal agricultural policy , although the centre
has been subscribing to it. But it is the outcome of the
initiative taken by reformers whose leaders are ministers in
the federal and the Sindh government.
Following the clamour for land reforms in Sindh which has a
large number of mega-farms, reformers, eventually led by Mr.
Nisar Memon, said in the modern world the answer to the
massive landless farming was not disrupting the land of the
big land owners but corporate farming was regarded as a very
modern agricultural system practised around the world, from
America to Australia, and from Canada to New Zealand to
maximize production, insure quality output and optimize the
yield per acre.
But what is proposed in Sindh is not the real corporate
farming either in size, composition, ownership and other
essential features. To begin with, the new process will not
help landless farmers, they will not be made shareholders in
the corporate farms in the manner the public can become
shareholders in the companies listed on the Karachi Stock
exchange. Instead of that 50,000 acres of forest and state
land are to be assigned for corporate farming. Even then much
of the forest lands are under illegal occupation and that has
to be cleared before they become available for use in
corporate farming.
The landless farmers fear that instead of the small plots
being allotted to them, as in the past, they will now be
allotted to the corporate farmlords. But even the corporate
farmlords will not have their way, the initial allotment will
only be five years, after which it will be reassigned for five
years more. Surely the corporate farmers will not make major
investments on their new land on the basis of their holding
being valid only for five years after which a new agriculture
minister may have a new policy.
Corporate farming needs very large investment and equipment
and development of the irrigation system on very modern lines
and the farmers may not be ready to make such investment on
the basis of holding the land for five years, and possibly
five years more. We have been told by the Sindh cabinet which
took the decision on the project that corporate farming would
be treated more like industry and similar fiscal and financial
concessions would be given. The fact is if the banks are not
sure the corporate farmers will make adequate investment on
proper equipment and hold the farm for long enough, they may
not come up with the requested loans.
Secondly, while the landless or small farmers may not object
to the fiscal concessions given to the corporate farmers, they
will want the same kind of financial facilities which the
corporate farmers get from banks particularly in respect of
interest rates. And normally the small farmers should also
have been enabled to become a part of corporate farming by
using their land as a part of the enterprise and sharing the
profits. That would enable them to get an income from
corporate farming if operated honestly while he himself
becomes a worker in the same farms or else where, doubling his
income.
That kind of a facility is not envisaged. As under the new
scheme the small farmer will live in his own world, while the
corporate farmer will live in his, and at the same time profit
by his own existing large farms. So he is better off under the
new scheme. While the landless farmer will wait for state
lands to be allotted to him and the small farmer to be able to
get more water in these days of recurrent drought.
Corporate farming is indeed essential if we want to enter the
agricultural export world in a big way. There is too much
competition there and there is a general deal of subsidies to
agriculture by the rich countries. But old Asian countries
have been digging and re-digging their old soil and using
fertilizers and pesticides to maximize production on their
small farms and losing out in international markets most of
the time or selling at marginal profits.
This problem can be overcome through corporate farming. But
let apart corporate farming, even the cooperative farming has
made small headway in Pakistan and has had too many setbacks
and quite many scandals. Nonetheless the government does not
want to give up the efforts to promote corporate farming.
A spectacular success of corporate farming in Pakistan is the
Mitchells fruit farm in Renala khurd in Punjab. Efforts to
replicate that have in cattle farming even with foreign
capital joint venture has hardly been a success and that is a
reflection of the agricultural failure of Pakistan in the
non-cereal and cotton sectors.
The effort to promote corporate farming in fishing has had no
better results. But the reformers who feel that they can fend
off the demand for land reforms in Sindh by moving towards
corporate farming are not taking into account the hardships of
the landless farmers and until the rules for the corporate
farming are framed and a more compact scheme is presented, it
will be difficult to pronounce the last word on the merit of
the scheme in Sindh.
But the fact remains in this period of recurrent drought and
excess of brackish water in Sindh, a good deal of money has to
be invested into the irrigation schemes in Sindh to provide
enough water for agriculture to save its many crops from
perishing. Nonetheless corporate farming, even in its improved
version, cannot wash away the demand for land reforms unless a
large number of landless farmers are provided with adequate
lands which are arable.
Courtesy Dawn May
28, 2002
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