Agricultural Loss
By: The Nation Report
The
energy crisis will continue to be a story throughout the
winter.
As if it hasn’t been a thorn in our side usually as well.
The scarcity of gas only reminds us of the mismanagement.
And lack of alternative planning on part of the
government.
And in the latest series of damages, the cotton and rice
crops.
The rice crop has had declining export figures and
revenues, and cotton production is at a low.
When the cotton rates fell below the cost of production, the
government asked the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP)
to lift 1m bales off the market and help stabilise falling
prices.
This government interference is counteractive. Even if the
government is absorbing the loss, it is still a loss. The
government works on an ad hoc basis.
There is no vision for the sustainable future of
agriculture.
The farmers have now responded by decreasing acreage under
the crop, a contraction of production. The government till
now has been supporting the cotton industry that is
unwilling to buy the cotton crop produced.
It is the farmer to which the
economic losses are being transferred. The farming lobby is
in revolt.
They demanded in parliament
that the GST levied on agricultural machinery, fertilisers,
pesticides and other agricultural input items be waived for
them.
This demand for protection
too is not what is needed.
But what should the framers
do when there is no infrastructure provided, electricity is
not only expensive but missing from the equation and there
is confusion over the support prices provided by the
government?
There are reports for example
that sugarcane has been selling at Rs150 per 40 kg while the
support price has been fixed at about Rs 180 per 40 kg fixed
by the provincial governments of Punjab and Sindh.
The whole nation is fixated
on dharna politics, not realising that we are nearing a time
when we will be so food deficient that we may starve.
Farmers and small business
have been trying to gather what they can by private means
whether it be installing solar panels, digging tube wells,
and even burning animal waste.
The government has to start
doing a better job.
December, 2014
Source: The
Nation