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Review of agro mismanagement
Agriculture is the backbone of national economy. Its share in
gross domestic product (GDP) declined from 53 per cent in 1947
to 23.3 per cent in 2003-04. It engaged 66 per cent of labour
force at the time of the inception of the country which has
now declined to 44 per cent due to increased employment in
industrial ,manufacturing and servicing sectors. Making tall
claims for agricultural development for the public consumption
has become a routine of the successive Governments.
The population of Pakistan in mid 1948 increased from 32.4
million to 145 million now ,which is estimated to increase to
180 million in 2010 and to 280 million in 2025 . The current
agricultural growth rate is not above population growth rate,
inspite of the tall claims of agricultural policy makers, to
meet the food and fibre requirements of the burgeoning
population and to maintain a reasonable export surplus for
sustaining our agro-based economy .
At present nor the land and water resources are being
efficiently utilized nor the actual yield potential has been
achieved due to mismanagement of our land and politicizing of
our water resource bases and failure to implement high
production technology at the field level. The projection of
wheat production show a shortfall of 8 million ton by the year
2013 and 11 million ton by 2025 .It is also estimated that by
2025 ,Pakistan will be short of by 28 million tons of
different food grains ,sugar ,pulses ,oilseeds etc .The
Government will be forced to import million of tons edible oil
,wheat , pulses ,raw cotton ,sugar and other agricultural
commodities costing billions of rupees causing heavy drain on
our limited national exchequer. Some of the areas of
mismanagement of agriculture are pointed out as under :
Land resource base: Our fertile agricultural lands are
deceasing due to urbanization ,industrialization ,construction
of roads, highways. The production potential of our existing
cultivated and cultivable lands is seriously declining due to
uncontrolled soil erosion ,soil salinity , water logging and
sea intrusion in the coastal belt .Inspite of the tall claims
of successive Governments of their control ,there are 11.2
million hectares(mha) of land eroded by water and 4.73 mha
eroded by wind .Similarly there are still 6.2 mha of slightly
to highly saline-sodic soils inspite of taking loan for their
reclamation .Likewise ,there are still 2.5 million mha of land
where water-table is between 0-5 feet below the ground surface
and 6.2 mha where ground water table is between 0-10 feet
inspite of spending billions of $ taken as loan for various
projects to control water logging including $785 million taken
for the national drainage project . This reflects on the poor
and inefficient policy of land resource management of our
agricultural managers .
Of the total farm land ,63 per cent comprises of small
,subsistent and below subsistent level farms. The continued
fragmentation into two or more separate holdings is a
significant constraint on agricultural production. The two
land reforms of 1972 and1977 and tenancy act of 2002 could not
be effectively implemented.
Water resource base: Pakistan has abundant water resource base
with an average river flow of 144 MAF with yearly fluctuations
and nearly 52 MAF of groundwater .Again , in the cultivated
command area of Indus Basin ,the total annual rainfall is
estimated at 23 MAF with a run-off loss of 50 per cent .Even
if this run-off loss is reckoned at 25per cent at the
croplands ,it would be 6 MAF .If to this is added the run-off
loss over forests and rangelands ,the total run-off loss would
come to 9MAF. This rain water loss would further increase if
losses outside the Indus basin are also included .
River/canal water resource is declining due to sedimentation
of old reservoirs thus seriously affecting crop production
.But no major reservoir has been constructed after the
construction of Tarbela Dam due to politicizing and
provicializing of the issue . Again ,out of the groundwater
acquifer nearly 46 to 48 MAF of water is already being used
due to increase of tube-wells to703,074 in 2003 in addition to
Persian wells ,lift pumps , karezrs etc. Overmining of
groundwater without any regard to its annual recharge rate is
seriously declining the groundwater acquifer. Seveal areas in
the country, especially in Balochistan have already been
exhausted causing serious problems to livestock and the
livestock. Again due to poor conservative rain water
harvesting practices our rain-fed crop yields are far below
those of irrigated crops. For instance ,our rain-fed wheat
yield is nearly 118 per cent below than the irrigated wheat
yield ,while in several countries of the world by following
modern water harvesting techniques their rain-fed crop yields
are nearly equal to their irrigated crop yields . This again
,reflects on inefficient use of our water resource base and
inept agricultural policies.
Crop production: The population of the country increased by
122 per cent from 1972 to 2003 ,while the total cropped area
increased by about 33 per cent during this period including
the area sown more than once in a year. Although the crop
yields also increased due to release of high yielding
varieties ,but their yields are still 56-84 per cent below the
demonstrated achievable potential at the farmers fields by FAO
experts in Pakistan. For instance, with respect to yield per
hectare in the world we rank 8th in wheat, 9th in rice(paddy),
10th in cotton ,15th in maize and virtually lowest in
sugarcane inspite of having the largest contiguous irrigation
system in the world. On the other hand India has larger area
under rain-fed crops ,but their yields are much higher than
ours due to better planning which enables the farmers
,especially small farmers to implement modern production
technology effectively at the field level.
Agricultural education ,research and extension: The time
tested unified agricultural education ,research and extension
system was disintegrated in early sixties resulting in poor
linkages among these institutes and their linkages with the
farmers.
There are four agricultural universities, three colleges and
two faculties. According to the European Union Mission which
came to study agricultural education system of Pakistan , the
standard of our education is very low as compared to
international universities due to prevailing indiscipline
,politics ,narrow ethnic and cast systems instead of taking
decisions purely on merit alone.
Similarly ,there are over 200 research institutes ,stations
and substations in the country ,but the research and extension
budget is little over 0.2 per cent of the share of agriculture
to GDP ,which is not sufficient for high standard research and
extension according to the international standards .Again ,
the international and national consultants of Agricultural
Research Project reported that there is no shortage of
competent agricultural scientists in Pakistan ,but due to too
much interference by the politicians and bureaucracy they are
demoralized .Because promotions ,awards and rewards are not
made on scientific merit and achievements but are made on the
personal likes and dislikes of these politicians ,bureaucracy
and heads of institutes .These consultants suggested various
measures in 1995 to improve our agricultural research system
by making it more independent from the clutches of politicians
and bureaucracy to improve our research system for increasing
agricultural production and attaining self-sufficiency .But no
action has been taken so far as the powerful bureaucracy did
not want to loose their hold on it .
Both China and India are emerging as economic giants in South
East Asia. On the other hand we are emerging as a most corrupt
giant due to lust for power and money by our successive
rulers, politicians and bureaucracy to whom accumulation of
wealth is more important than the supreme national interest .
As a result corruption has spread to all departments and walk
of life in our society .The common man is the ultimate
sufferer.
Courtesy: The Nation
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