Our Only Way Out
 By  Zaib Altaf

Being an Agriculture country it’s our foremost duty to improve our agriculture sector to support the economy of Pakistan.

Without improving our agricultural sector it’s impossible to get progress in our economy because it’s a source of food, clothes and other raw products which are our basic needs for survival of life.

The Agriculture sector directly supports the three-quarters of country’s population, employs half the labor force, and contributes a large share of foreign exchange earnings.

Agriculture is a basic and rests of all other industries are totally dependent on its products.

As, cotton is a cash crop of Pakistan and its a chief and only source of textile industry.

On the other hand in the same way Sugarcane is also a cash crop of Pakistan and it is the chief source of sugar in Pakistan.

In the last year of 2011, in Pakistan there is a loss in the yield of agricultural crops particularly in cotton because of poor agricultural techniques as well as less intension towards this sector.

Some of environmental factors also played significant role in low production e.g. a sudden increase in rainfall which led t a source of flood. Due to all these factors almost all crops and particularly all lands were majority affected.

The agriculture GDP growth rate in Pakistan was only 1.5 percent in 2007, significantly lower than the population growth rate (Pakistan National Income Statistics 2008).

Now a days government should divert it more intension to improving agriculture techniques and should encourage farmers by supporting them with well learned extension workers and also by providing them latest machinery and all those things which they needed to improve the quality and quantity of our crops for getting high yield as compared to last year.

For this purpose Prime Minister announced to order his team for the preparation of various types of proposals for providing the relief to all farmers in the next year budget with the help of different programs like Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and also fix priorities to resolve the energy crisis.

Along with all these facilities he also announced about the creation of various other jobs. As far as for Agriculture growth for the coming year 2012-13 is expected at 4%, while the services sector will grow at 4.6%.

For improving role of Agriculture in GDP, it’s necessary to extend the agriculture sector by implementing latest facilities which it lacks in previous years.

Under the PSDP allocations, priority has been given to water and power sector, in addition to emphasizing on social region, health, education and poverty alleviation.

From the total production Punjab Government has allocated, Rs 5.040 billion for agriculture sector, Rs 11.25 billion for irrigation, Rs 1.65 billion for livestock, Rs 475 million for forestry, Rs 350 million for wildlife, Rs 250 million for fisheries, Rs 300 million for mines and minerals and Rs 350 million for industries.

Government also announced Budget for development of various new schemes to extend agriculture field.

According to the general budget 2012-2013: Goal for agricultural sector increased to Rs. 5, 75,000 crore; Rs. 200 crore for awards for agricultural research; Allocation to agriculture enhanced; RKVY gets Rs. 9,217 crore; BGREI gets Rs. 1,000 crore; Rs.2242 crore project to progress dairy production.

Role of fertilizer is also very important in crop production so with help of cooperation of agriculture scientists government should initiate programs to educate farmers about the proper application of fertilizers in field.

The rates of food commodities that are increasing now days are only because of poor production, poor management and improper storage facilities of agriculture food products.

Post harvest losses are also very high so it’s necessary that government should manage to make large godaams and storage houses for storing of all these food commodities and their products.

With help of all these developing schemes it would be helpful for common man as well as farmer at field level.

For getting more positive response and output from agriculture sector it should also be necessary to provide all modern facilities for development and rearing of livestock.

It is not possible to think of any productive activity without agriculture.

As agriculture plays a key factor in country progress by contributing 21 per cent to the GDP and providing employment opportunities for 45 per cent of the country's labor force and also 60 per cent of the rural population depends upon this sector for its livelihood.

So it’s essential to take high intension towards it.

March, 2014

Source:  Diplomatic Circle