The other day, Punjab chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, who was on his maiden visit to Karachi after his election as president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, made a sobering observation about the infrastructural landscape of Karachi: "There is no infrastructural development in Sindh [Karachi] at all". Although his remark clearly emanated from his political agenda that he, as the new head of the ruling party, seeks to pursue ahead of the 2018 general elections, it is strongly characterized by astute appreciation of ground realities in the context of Sindh as the province has lagged far behind Punjab in every social and economic area of human activity since the 2008 general elections in particular; it is even behind Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in many respects such as delivery of public healthcare and education. That is why perhaps the PPP government in Sindh is suddenly awakened from its deep slumber, initiating a slew of measures with a view to strengthening its sway over rural Sindh and trying to cash in on the opportunity that the unraveling of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has thrown up for all mainstream parties in urban Sindh. Its latest move to approve Sindh's "first-ever" agriculture and youth policies clearly demonstrates its approach to the electioneering phase that requires all parties, particularly those ruling at Centre and provinces for the last five years, to show no complacency towards the election challenge.
Be that as it may, the two policies were approved by the Sindh cabinet. Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal reportedly told the cabinet that the agriculture policy was complimented by a series of background studies regarding macroeconomic factors along with consultation with farmers and other stakeholders. According to him, the policy will remain in place till 2030. However, various legal, regulatory, institutional and expenditure-related changes set out in the policy would be implemented over a period of two years - 2018-20. The salient features of the new policy, according to newspaper reports, include increasing credit flows to crop, livestock and fisheries and for associated rural off-farm activities; development of new instruments such as warehouse receipts and building linkages; formal and informal sources of credit; simplification of the procedure for land use, land transfer and lease for establishment of rural enterprises; reformation of the legal and regulatory system governing agriculture and livestock marketing and to redesign the price support system; improvement in legislation, regulations, labelling and quality oversight in the market for inputs, particularly for seed, fertilisers, pesticides, animal feed and veterinary medicines, as well as for certification system for organic crop, livestock and fisheries products. the Sindh government now looks forward to attracting investors, both domestic and foreign, to rural areas through fiscal incentives. It wants a better legal/regulatory environment for commercial farming, cold chain and agro-based industry and to promote export of high-value food production. The policy has also decided to review and reallocate government expenditure on agriculture as well as direct and indirect subsidies; to restructure, right-size and rationalize government departments concerned to be made 'fit for purpose' avoiding duplication of efforts with improved conditions and reform the public research and extension system for crops, horticulture, livestock and fisheries, particularly their governance mechanism.
It was heartening to see the presentation of some key facts about agriculture in Sindh by chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah. He pointed out that Sindh accounts for 18 percent of the country's land area, 16 percent of its total cropped area and contributes about 23 percent to the national value-added agriculture. He has however conceded that this sector gave a bad performance in financial year 2015-16 which led to the agriculture growth being negative for the first time in history. His claim that what little growth had occurred was the result of more land, water and input, higher livestock numbers or greater fishing effort by the government gives credence to his argument that such an input-based pattern of growth is not sustainable as it is estimated that by 2025 the water requirements for agriculture would increase by about 50 percent if the current irrigation practices continued. This highlights the criticality of the water challenge. His point also explains the fast-paced or brute urbanization of rural areas because the margins of profits in giving away agriculture land to land developers and builders bring to them money that they could invest in economic activities other than agriculture. This fact has strongly manifested itself in the case of Punjab in particular where more and more agricultural land is being transformed into spaces for industries and housing schemes. The agriculture policy, however, hasn't taken into account the issue of water-logging, wastages and soil salinity which are more pronounced in Sindh than anywhere else in the country.
The Sindh government's policy on youth is claimed to be aimed at building youths who are economically sound, socially progressive and politically engaged and who possess appropriate skills and tolerant values of good citizens. Backed by political will, this social sector policy stands a better chance of success than the agriculture scheme does if it is pursued and implemented on the lines of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). The two Sindh government policies were long overdue but the announcement of these policies at the fag end of government's five-year tenure and weeks before the announcement of the next provincial budget for 2018-19 indicates that these measures, however laudatory, were borne out more by political expediency than anything else. One of the key shortcomings of the agriculture policy, for example, is the absence of any taxation measure or reform, which is provinces' exclusive domain.
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