Corporatizing the agri sector

Despite a severe shortage of arable land China ranks first in worldwide farm output. The arable land in India's Punjab is one-third of our Punjab but its irrigation area is 90 percent and cropping intensity 189 percent. In terms of arable land and water availability, Pakistan is better placed than both China and Indian Punjab, but its agri output is deficient as compared to theirs. The situation came under spotlight at the 5th China Agro Chemical (CAC) Pakistan Exhibition in Lahore on Thursday. Addressing the gathering, President Arif Alvi said that modern techniques from China can inject a revolutionary improvement into agricultural sector of Pakistan. According to him, "joint ventures between Pakistan and China will bring Chinese researchers, agricultural experts and business community to Pakistan and when they join hands with Pakistani businessmen, our agricultural sector will get a boost." Consul General of China Long Dingbin, who was present on the occasion, said, China and Pakistan have already initiated government-to-government cooperation in agriculture sector, and thanks to CAC there is now an opportunity for businessmen of both countries to promote "B2B cooperation". How this cooperation will come about and grow only time will tell. Is the farming community's leadership on board at the B2B cooperative joint ventures? This question needs to be answered. Almost coincidental to the president's take on the subject chief of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad Khalid Mehmood Khokhar told Business Recorder that "economic reforms and the opening of Pakistani agriculture to the global market over the past decades have made small farmers vulnerable to unusual changes and fluctuations". And according to Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP), the farmer is becoming poorer by the day because the support prices of farm produce are not commensurate with cost of inputs.

Even when Pakistan's successive elected governments that are dominated by landed gentry are in office, nothing worthwhile, both in terms of legislation and economic patronage, has been done to retrieve the small farmer from his grinding poverty. Given this indifference he tends to get poorer by the day. If prices of inputs are beyond his reach, the market machinations are no less vicious. But the fact should not be overlooked that despite being stepmotherly treated the agriculture sector's contribution to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is nearly 25 percent. And it provides employment to about 40 percent Pakistanis - more than any other sector of national economy. Accepted, the per farmer landholding now stands at 5.6 acres - less than half of what it was in 1972 - but that small piece is still a viable economic unit because of modern farming technology, efficient usage of water and inputs, reasonable market prices and benevolent governmental parentage. But, as the PKI chief pointed out, small farmers have to compete with bigger ones, who are well-endowed with capital, irrigation and supplementary businesses to buffer them against shocks. "The unfair injustice towards small-scale farmers is discouraging them to pursue agriculture as a means of economic survival". It would be, therefore, in the B2B's own interest that they see to it that their joint ventures do not cause joblessness, which in today's world is the most serious threat to peaceful and stable governance. Pakistan agricultural sector is no doubt in dire need of modernisation - on which the CAC has the right potential to deliver - but no less feared is its negative fallout on the future of small landholders. The question in relation to the upcoming corporatization of the country's agricultural sector, therefore, is: Is there a pro-small farmer plan as well?