The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called to review agriculture policies saying that serious food security could take place in near future because of rising graph of population. If steps are not taken on war footing, food security would shatter the economic structure as country would be compelled to spend billions dollars on imports to feed its huge population.
"If we stayed where we are today in terms of cropped area and yield per hectare, we will have 30 percent less food available per capita in next two decades" the LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad said here on Friday. Though Pakistan's almost 43 percent labour force is dependent upon agriculture, the yield gap in the four major crops of Pakistan is three times from the best producers in the world such as China and Egypt.
Low yield has contributed to the poverty in rural areas besides forcing country to import agriculture produces to feed its population, he said. The fact should be an eye opener that China produces two times more cotton and wheat per hectare and Egypt produces around three times more rice and sugarcane per hectare as compared to Pakistan.
Factors that are recommended to improve the yield are through large scale introduction of hybrid seeds and mechanised farming, high efficiency irrigation systems such as drip irrigation and reduction in wastage of crop through introduction of privately owned storage facilities and cold storage facilities".
The agriculture sector in Pakistan has a huge potential which continues to be the single largest and dominant driving force for growth as well as the main source of livelihood for 66 percent of Pakistan's population. But it has always faced two major problems: first, productions per acre are lower than many countries. Secondly, around 40 percent of production is wasted in the form of post-harvest losses due to insufficient utilisation of biotechnology, he added.
The LCCI President said that Pakistan would have to focus on genetically modified and hybrid crops to tap true potential of agricultural productivity in the country. While stressing the need for establishment of institutes both at provincial and federal levels for creating awareness among the farming community about Genetically Modified (GM) technology, they said that sustainability and improvement in crops yield are the major challenges to meet upcoming threats of increasing population and depleting water resources.
"Biotechnology has shown considerable potential to raise agricultural productivity by addressing problems not solved through conventional research. Among other application of biotechnology, development of genetically modified organisms is the promising tool to facilitate plant breeding in development of crops to insect and tolerant to herbicide, he added.
The genetic modified crops have contributed to sustainable development in several significant ways including: contributing to food security and more affordable food, conserving biodiversity, alleviation of poverty and hunger, mitigating climate change and reducing greenhouses gases, contributing to the cost-effective production of bio-fuels and above all by contributing to sustainable economic benefits. He urged the government to patronise scientists working for the technology promotion and its up-gradation in the country. He said that it was very unfortunate that the country did not have any framework for transfer of technology. He lamented that there are 400 research institutions in the country but their performance is not up the mark.
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