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Agricultural policy
Sardar Riaz A. Khan
Since the inception of Pakistan agriculture was the backbone
of our economy .In its earlier years Pakistan was
agriculturally surplus country and we used to have an
exportable food grain surplus of 500,000 to 700,000 tons. On
the other hand India had a defecit of 2.5 to 3 million tons of
food grains .But due to inept agricultural policies of our
successive rulers we have imported wheat for 47 years in 57
years of the country,s history .Likewise, we are importing
other agriculturalcommodities regularly .For instance we
imported in 2002-03 ,1.29 million ton of edible oil ,raw
cotton 0.2 million ton,pulses 0.4 million ton , tea 0.12
million ton ,milk and milk products 11006 tons and we are
again importing 1.5 million ton of wheat in 2004 .On the other
hand India which was a chronic importer of food grains ,
edible oil , pulses etc has not only become self sufficient in
their production ,but is nowexporting them due to their well
planed agricultural development policies .Unfortunately our
concerned politicians and bureaucracy did not want that we
should become self sufficient in agriculture as they earn
commissions on the import of various agricultural commodities
.
 In
1960, agriculture contributed 65 per cent to our national GDP
.Inspite of industrialization and shift of capital from
agriculture to industry ,agriculture still contributes nearly
24 per cent to the GDP ,employs 44 per cent of the total labor
force and contributes over 70 per cent of the total exports
.Instead of developing a strong agricultural policy on sound
economic parameters for sustainable growth of agriculture ,the
continued neglect and poor planning by successive governments
has resulted in Pakistan becoming a chronic importer of
various food and fibre items costing a burden of billions of
rupees on national exchequer .
None of the eight five years plans with the probable exception
of second five year plan (1960-65) could achieve the projected
targets of agriculture sector .The ninthfive years plan with
tall claims of agricultural development could not be
implemented due to the removal of the then government in 1999
.According to the national press the present government has
prepared tenth five year plan with as usual tall claims of
bringing a green revolution in agriculture .Since the details
of the plan has not yet been given ,it is difficult to make
any comment at this stage .But the question arises that when
the economy of the nation is not stable ; corruption is
rampant at all levels of the country ;there is serious law and
order situation ;tension is growing in the tribal areas and
the provinces ;there is no democracy according to the
perception of Father of the Nation, and according to the
reports of international media Pakistan is now a very instable
country .Under these circumstances ,naturally the question
arises ,will it be possible to bring green revolution which
needs complete national harmony .Nevertheless , some
suggestions are made for the consideration of the agricultural
planners as under:
One of our major approach should be to attain self-sufficiency
in wheat ,edible oil, cotton ,pulses and development of
livestock and forestry sectors . In addition , there is great
need to streamline our agro-based industry and existing
inefficient marketing and export system .After 57 years bitter
experience ,a commission of highly competent scientists of all
agricultural fields should be made to study the major
constraints of our agricultural institutions , production and
marketing constraints .The commission should recommend how to
remove these constraints onpriority bases and suggest
foolproof measures to improve agricultural production to
attain self-sufficiency as has successfully done in several
countries of the world .
The Federal and Provincial Secretaries of Agriculture must be
highly competent scientists/technocrats in the field of
agriculture instead of bureaucrats which are the outdated
legacy of former British Empire .The departments of
agriculture and irrigation should be under the same secretary
of agriculture with an additional Secretary of agriculture(an
agriculture scientist)and an additional Secretary of
irrigation(irrigation engineer) under him .These additional
Secretaries should coordinate their activities for increasing
crop production .For instance ,they should be made responsible
to see that maximum area of wheat is sown within Oct 20 to Nov
21 .Because thereafter, a delay of one day results in
reduction of yield by 35 kg per hectare per day .Since the
planting of wheat continues till end of December in the rice-
wheat belt and continues even later in January in cotton
-wheat belt thus seriously affecting the production of wheat
.Such coordination between the departments of irrigation and
agriculture in the Indian Punjab has enabled them to sow over
90per cent of their wheat area by the end of November the
optimum time for planting wheat to obtain maximum yield in the
Indian Punjab .As a result the Indian Punjab which is
one-third of our Punjab contributes 70 per cent to the
national wheat pool of India which is over four times bigger
than Pakistan .
Similarly the coordinated agriculture and irrigation
departments should ensure timely availability of water to
various crops ,especially during their critical stages of
growth .For instance ,the critical stages of irrigation for
wheat are tillering and anthesis ,for cotton flowering and
boll formation , for rice flowering and grain development ,for
maize tasseling through silking, for sunflower bloom and early
seed formation .Even if the total water requirement of a crop
is given during its growing period except at one of
itscritical stage of growth ,it will seriously effects its
production .For instance , if the total water requirement of
19 ace-inch of wheat is given during its growing period ,
except at its tillering stage ,it will reduce its yield up to
20per cent.
Again ,crash programs of achieving self sufficiency in edible
oil ,pulses , cotton and other important crops be developed on
top priority bases .The concerned departments and District
Mayors /Councilors should be made responsible for achieving
their targets within a specified time .Their on going progress
be monitored and evaluated for timely removal of any
constraints .Thosedoing good job for obtaining these targets
be awarded and rewarded and those found neglecting their
responsibilities should be given exemplary punishment .
According to the international consultants our Agricultural
Education ,Research and Extension System has deteriorated due
to its disintegration ,dominance of bureaucracy and too much
political interference in its affairs and corruption .They
suggested various alternatives to highly standardize this
system but no action has been takenso far as bureaucracy did
not want to loose hold on it .
Top priority be given for the construction of new
waterreservoirs on purely technical grounds rather than on
political bases in the supreme national interest .Again
,within a canal and water course commands equity of water
distribution be strictly ensured as thepolitically influential
feudal lords and members of national and provincial assemblies
,especially from Sindh and Punjab are depriving the middle and
tailend farmers from their water rights in connivance with the
concerned corrupt officials of irrigation departments .The
policy makers should ensure equity of water distribution for
increasing crop production and welfare of the common farmers
in their tenth five year plan .
Again ,due to uncontrolledirrigation and over-mining from over
700000 tube-wells ,in addition to Persian wells ,lift pumps
,karezes etc has already seriouslyexhausted groundwater
acquifer in vast areas in the country .The new five year plan
must include measures to over come this serious problem . One
of the measure to overcome this serious problem is that their
off-take rate must not exceed 70per cent of their natural
recharge rate for sustainable ground water availability
.Likewise ,nearly 70per cent of total tube-wells have slightly
to highly brackish water that adversely effects crop yields
and increase soil salinity . The policy makers should consider
to implement sulfurous acid generator technology on such
tubewells located on gypsiferous soils as is being done
successfully in several countries of the word ,whilegypsum
technology be used on those located in non-gypsiferous soils
.Again, rainfed agriculture did not receive the attention it
deserved by the policy makers in the last nine five year plans
as it was considered a high risk agriculture The present
planers of green revolution should know that by
followingmodern advanced rain water harvesting techniques
90per cent or even more of rain water is being harvested in
several countries of the world and many of them are getting
their rainfed crop yields nearly equal to their irrigated crop
yields .On the other hand due to conventional water harvesting
practices we arecollecting 20-25 per cent of rain water
run-off and our rain-fed crop yields are 80 to over 100 per
cent below the irrigated crop yields.
The policy makers should consider to develop a plan for
conservation agriculture which is now followed on over 72
million hectares in the world and is fast spreading to meet
the requirements of the burgeoning population and declining
resource base .It not only increases yields but also conserves
resources and reduce cost of production. Again, according to
the census of 2000, out of the total farm land of the country
, 44per cent is under subsistent and below subsistent level .
If to this is addedthe area under small farms then the area
under small ,subsistent and subsistent level farms comes to
63per cent of the total farm land which itself is a major
constraint for agricultural production . Therefore present
policy makers should seriously consider for land reform and
fix 20 acres of land beyond which no further fragmentation be
made as India has already brought green revolution by fixing
such lower limit of 17 acres .
Livestock contributes nearly 44 per cent of agriculture's GDP
.Its population increased from 49.5 million in 1960-61 to
138.8 million in 2000-03,while that of poultry increased from
less than 24.3 million to 346 million during the same period
.The existing yield gap of buffalo and cow milk between actual
and potential yields varies between 56-63 per cent .The major
problems of livestock sector are poor feed ,health ,breeding
,marketing and smuggling to Afghanistanproblems which need
immediate attention of policy makers .Again , there is great
scope of export earnings from poultry and its products by
proper planning .Likewise , there is good potential of fish
export by following latest technology for catching ,processing
,marketing and export of fish .
Forests are vital to our ecology as they play a vital role in
conserving natural resources and themselves are a source of
valuable commodities . Unfortunately they still hardly occupy
4.8 per cent of the total geographic area of Pakistan as
against the minimumstandard requirement of 20-25 per cent .
Mismanagement ,corruption ,illegal deforestation by the
politically influentials has also resulted in soil erosionin
our river catchments resulting in silting up of our reservoirs
.Similarly overgrazing andmismanagement of our rangelandshave
resulted in their significant depletion .These are just some
of the national problems which needs immediate attention of
the policy makers for bringing green revolution of agriculture
in the country . They should form a task force of highly
competent ,dedicated and honest scientists in various fields
of agriculture for the guidance of policy makers throughout
the tenth five year plan period .
(The author is Ph.D. and held numerous high positions in
acedemic and research organisations).
The Nation
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