FPCCI body voices concern over neglecting agriculture sector

FPCCI Standing Committee on Horticulture Exports' former chairman Ahmad Jawad said agriculture sector was largely ignored in the proposed budget speech of FY 2019-20. No subsidy was announced on fertiliser and pesticides, a main component of the farming sector, which means there is no relief to the farmers' community. We expect some concrete measures in the budget which may help to reduce the cost of farming in the light of drastic figures of the agriculture sector in the economic survey. However, there was only one incentive measured which was given to the agriculture sector on tariff subsidy of agriculture tube wells @ 6.83 per unit may be appreciated. Similarly proposed Rs 12 billion for the National Food Security is a joke, once again Pakistan Horticulture Sector was ignored and no incentives for Horticulture exporters announced. "I failed to understand with these peanuts how agriculture sector could perform well in the proposed GDP growth".
The performance of agriculture during 2018-19 remained subdued. On the aggregate the sector grew by 0.85 percent, much lower than the target of 3.8 percent set at the beginning of the year," according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2018-19.
The crops sector experienced a negative growth of 4.43 percent against the growth target of 3.6 percent on the back of decline in growth of important crops i.e. sugarcane, cotton, rice, maize and wheat, he said.
Jawad said agriculture contributes 18.5 percent to the country's GDP and provides 38.5 percent employment to the national labour force but it remains a backward sector of the economy while high-performing agriculture is the key to economic growth and poverty alleviation.
Over the last decade, the performance of agriculture sector has fallen short of the desirable level, mainly because of stagnant productivity of all important crops.
"Crop area of the five traditional crops has largely remained unchanged. Climate change also poses a serious challenge to Pakistan's agriculture and threatens country's water availability and food security and still in 2019-20 there will be no out of the box indicators may be witnessed in this sector in the wake of budget speech, Jawad added.