The present government's agriculture policy, followed by package offered to agriculturists, launching of gigantic projects to conserve water resources and unparalleled budget allocation for agriculture sector, remains a question mark as far as achieving the macro agriculture targets are concerned, especially in Sindh province.
The apprehensions are based on failure of policies introduced by successive governments and packages offered to growers.
The failure of policies and package cannot be attributed to poor availability of water alone as there are other factors also, including administrative and political interference and flaws in working of Agriculture Department.
Much has been said about introduction of modern methods of cultivation and mechanisation of agriculture sector but the ground realities are that even after completion of the 7th five-year Plan 397000 tractors were to be brought on the fields but according to Census Report of Agriculture Machinery tractors in Punjab are 210,019, and in Sindh 23,041 of which 30 percent are doing haulage and construction work both in Punjab and Sindh.
In neighbouring India where the per acre yield is almost double compared to Pakistan, every section of Agriculture sector is mechanised and computerised.
Whereas the demand of rice growers for import of second-hand combined harvesters to avoid 15 to 20 percent harvest and post-harvest losses is yet to be considered, the result is that coarse rice cultivation and production has lost its economic viability and the people in rice growing districts are shifting to cotton cultivation even in the absence of infrastructure.
Introduction of zero tillage in rice growing districts by providing them drills and transfer of knowledge would help achieve food security in the province.
The distortion in price of agriculture commodities is yet another problem faced by agriculture communities as the distortion in prices will have negative impact on specialisation of the commodities themselves.
The distortion in sugarcane prices induces farmers to shift to other cash crops. It was distortion that cotton growers preferred to sell their produce to buyers from Punjab because the ginneries in Sindh were not treating growers fairly.
The government is allocating huge amounts to provide financial backup to growers to improve their production through banks. There is no doubt that there was a reasonable growth in distribution of farm credit, but the ground realities are that major beneficiaries are owners of large landholdings or the influential feudals-turned-politicians and not the majority of small farmers who, according to research conducted by the Institute for Food and Development Policy, are more productive, more multi-functional, efficient and contribute more to economic development compared to big farmers. But unfortunately they had been left to the mercy of informal financial market with extremely high mark-up.
These small farmers could play a vital role in improving the agriculture output but they could not play their role as government failed to build up a social framework based on justice and equality which could create a sense of security in rural society.
The question about the default in reimbursing the loan by growers to loaning agencies has been raised more often than not but nothing has been done to ensure timely payment to growers of their produce from ginning factories, rice and sugar mills.
There is law to recover loan from growers, then why there should not be law to ensure payment to growers by the purchaser of the produce.
The statistic issued by Sindh Cane Commissioner about the sugar mills defaulting payment to growers for their produce for years together can be quoted as example.
With the devolution of Agriculture Extension, it seems that the entire Agriculture department has gone on furlough.
This could be judged by the fact that the Provincial Food and Agriculture Minister has yet to visit rural areas where most of the people toil in scorching heat to provide agriculture commodities.
The case of other top officials and experts is not different to that of Minister.
Interaction between research institutes and Extension workers is at almost at zero level; as such, the question of transferring of modern methods of cultivation and other technology doesn't arise.
There are growing reports of administrative and financial mismanagement in the agriculture department, which can only be confirmed by instituting a high level inquiry into the entire affairs.
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