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The neglect of agriculture
By Dr Sardar Riaz A.
Khan
THE share of agriculture in 1947 was 53 per cent of the GDP
which now has declined to 23 per cent. This sector deploys
44 per cent of the total labour force, while 68 per cent
rural population depends on it, directly or indirectly.
Agriculture contributes over 70 per cent to export.
 But
its share in the national budget is negligible. Inadequate
allocation and mismanagement resulted in three per cent
growth as against the targeted seven per cent in 2005-06.
Instead, weather was blamed for the low growth.
Out of the total Rs903 billion budgetary allocation in
2004-05, the share of agriculture was around Rs11 billion as
compared to Rs9.17 billion in the preceding fiscal. This Rs2
billion increase was nullified by cut in non-development
allocation from Rs7.67 billion to Rs3.95 billion.
The Public Sector Development Plan earmarked Rs7.29 billion
for agriculture or 0.8 per cent of the budget. The funding
for research, education and extension was around 0.3-0.4 per
cent of the GDP. As a result 80-90 per cent of funds were
spent on salaries and maintenance of research and
educational institutes and hardly 10-20 per cent was left
which was insufficient for any meaningful research. The
government should consider increasing the research
allocation from 10-20 per cent to 40 per cent as per
international standards.
In 1988, the National Commission on Agriculture recommended
that the share of agriculture in budget at not less than 1.5
per cent of the GDP. It could not be implemented and the
share of agriculture in the GDP fell from 26 per cent to
nearly 23 per cent in 2005-06.
With high costs of input, pesticides, electricity, diesel,
farm machinery, the share of agriculture in the budget
should not be less than 2.5 per cent during year 2006-07.
Later on, it should be increased to maintain a sustainable
growth in this sector.
The 2004-05 Budget basically was
manufacturer-and-business-oriented which this year again is
expected to be repeated. The government’s policy is to
give more importance to industry than agriculture. The
government must realise that giving preference to industrial
sector may increase exports but a neglected agriculture
sector will increase imports of food items. This will negate
the effects of increased industrial exports.
Similar situation prevailed in provincial budgets. In
Balochistan, agriculture contributes over 50 per cent to the
provincial domestic product (PDP) but its share in the
provincial budget is negligible. Similarly, the share of
agriculture in the NWFP was 0.8 per cent of the total
budget, of Sindh it was 1.1 per cent, and of Punjab 1.5 per
cent in 2004-05.
The Agricultural Bank of Pakistan (ADP) and commercial banks
have increased their credit from Rs57 billion in 2002-03 to
over Rs80 billion in 2004-05, and to Rs130 billion during
2005-06. This was not sufficient to meet the per cropped
acre cost due to high prices of seed, fertilizer,
pesticides, electricity and diesel for tube-wells, farm
machinery and farm tariff.
This increase in credit will provide nominal relief to
farming community, especially the small, subsistent and
below subsistent level farmers who cultivate nearly 50 per
cent of the total area. Politicians and feudal lords take
major part of loan against their tenants by showing them as
small farmers.
Most of the credit does not go to genuine farmers and
landless tenants. It is a tragedy that most of these
politically influential people get their loans written off.
In view of it, the government should ensure that the fair
amount of targeted loan goes to genuine farmers, besides
facilitating the procedural requirements for obtaining such
loans by small farmers.
Many development projects are announced in budgets but most
of them are not completed on time, funds are misappropriated
and the quality of construction remains below standard. With
the exception of the second Five-Year Development Plan, none
could achieve their targets.
Despite spending billions, agricultural sector still suffers
from declining land and water resources, water-logging,
salinity, inefficient irrigation water use, and over-mining
of groundwater, especially in Balochistan.
Continued fragmentation of land holdings has decreased the
farm size while the increasing input costs have lowered
production. Politically influential mill owners, hoarders,
traders and uncontrolled smuggling of agricultural
commodities across the borders have compounded the problem.
The prices of food items have reached record high levels.
The bird flu has seriously affected the poultry industry.
These are few realities. Keeping this in view some
suggestions are given for the Budget 2006-07.
* An independent commission of scientists and economist
should be formed to study the causes of failure of Five-Year
Plans, and the poor performance of projects approved in
annual budgets.
* Constraints should be removed for success of projects.
* Besides, constructing new dams and lining of water
courses, drip irrigation should be introduced to increase
the irrigation efficiency as this will save 40-60 per cent
of water as compared to conventional gravity flow irrigation
system. This will increase crop yields up to 20 per cent as
established by the FAO experts in Balochistan.
* Adoption of low energy precision application (LEPA) will
increase irrigation efficiency by 95 per cent over
traditional sprinkler irrigation. Well established water
harvesting technologies may increase yields of our rain-fed
crops between 200-400 per cent as is being successfully done
in several countries.
* The present crop yields are 54-80 per cent blow the
achievable potential at farmer’s field. Crash programme
for increasing crop production should be developed in the
next budget and monitored during implementation to remove
constraints.
Small farm production technology should be encouraged till
effective land reforms are implemented to end the cult of
feudalism which seriously affects the productivity.
* Two wheel hand driven Chinese tractors with a commanding
capacity of 12 hectares should be imported for preparing
land, sowing seed, fertilizer application. This will reduce
the cost of cultivation by one-third and increase the yield
up to 25 per cent. It also enables timely sowing of wheat
after rice in rice-wheat belt thus significantly increasing
wheat yield.
* Hydra–ramp pump Chinese mountainous technology should be
adopted in mountainous regions to increase irrigation
efficiency and crop production in these regions.
* Provision for adopting conservation agriculture technology
should be made in the new budget as it is now extensively
being followed around the globe to meet the increasing food
requirements.
Courtesy: The DAWN
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