That PPP has historically upheld agriculture friendly politics is no secret. But this election year, not only has the party doubled down on its pro-farmer policies, by announcing the manifesto before any other party it has also created a positive pressure on other major parties to follow suit.
Whether political parties remain true to their manifestos is debatable; however, those with a keen eye for political strategies would recall that during the last election of 2013, PPP’s agenda for agriculture reform was most comprehensive as it called for a People’s Agriculture Reform that aimed to grant land to landless peasants and substantially increase concessionary credit allocation to farmers through Zarai Taraqiati Bank (ZTBL). This was at a time when the favoured race horses PML-N and PTI talked about bringing income from agriculture under tax net and corporatization of the sector to revitalize growth.
Whether the voter really cared for PPP’s promises last time is debatable, but its promises to farmers clearly failed to gain enough traction to bring it back to power. Even so, the party seems to believe that it did not promise enough last time. If voted in power, it aims to usher in a “Zarai Inqilab” which it compares to FDR’s New Deal.
As part of its new deal, the party will launch “Benazir Kissan Card” scheme, agriculture sector’s version of the widely accredited BISP. The most salient, and appreciable feature of the scheme is that it eliminates the current mode of agriculture subsidies where government support is passed on to farmers through manufacturing entities part of the agricultural value chain.
Instead, the program argues to directly credit subsidy to small farmers in their Benazir Kissan Card using ZTBL as the conduit. The manifesto comprehensively details the mechanism of this program which is based along the same lines as BISP: verification of data through NADRA and independent audits to verify registration data.
The manifesto also announces an “overhaul of price support system”. It argues for adding a range of grains to price support list besides wheat to include rice, pulses, cotton, millet and maize. While it is true that extending price support to more crops will encourage crop diversification and rotation, it is debatable whether more government expenditure remains the best way to encourage a diversified portfolio. Significantly, no price support is promised for sugarcane, however, it does promise vouchers for cane farmers guaranteeing payment at harvest through Kissan Card instead of relying on millers to pass on the benefit.
True to its gender equality roots, PPP’s manifesto emphatically notes that women constitute more than half of the agricultural workforce, which in turn is the largest sector of the economy in terms of employment. The document promises a Benazir Women Agricultural Workers program for alleviation of working women and protection of their legal rights. However, it should be noted that BWAW does not identify concrete steps unlike other parts of the party’s agriculture program but makes generic promises such as right to equal pay, minimum wage, entitlement to maternity leaves among others, without highlighting the mechanism to achieve these goals.
A policy document no matter how grand holds little value if it’s not accompanied with an actionable strategy, as the success of any political program lies in its implementation. However, viewed in isolation from its past performance record, PPP’s 2018 manifesto appears to have attractive promises for the farmer vote and sets a good challenge for other major parties vying for power to match up.
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