At a meeting of the representatives of growers, mostly the members of the Sindh Abadgar Board, held in Hyderabad the other day, the participants expressed the fear that the agriculture sector in Sindh was on the verge of ruination.
The meeting, presided over by Abdul Majeed Nizamani, President of the Abadgar Board, laid the blame on the government's ill-conceived policies, including the imposition of GST on all agricultural inputs besides what they described as "mismanagement" of water resources of the country.
It was alleged that water was not only released to Sindh 45 days late for the Kharif season but the supply was drastically lower by 55 percent than the normal flows. As the sowing of Kharif crops was delayed they demanded that water supply should now be extended up to October for the standing Kharif crops, viz. sugarcane and paddy.
It was also rightly suggested that in order to cope with the serious shortfall in the availability of water, drip and sprinkling system of irrigation should be introduced with appropriate financial assistance to farmers.
The growers' representatives also demanded postponement of loan recovery campaign against farmers in view of the fact that they were facing enormous problems of cash flows.
Another suggestion made at the meeting was that the sugar mills in Sindh should start the crushing operations 15 days earlier in the middle of October instead of the usual first week of November.
An early beginning of crushing, it was felt, would result in conservation of the irrigation water in the sugarcane acreage.
This was quite a practicable suggestion. It was further emphasised that the on-going work of brick-lining of canals and distributories should be accelerated to stop wastage of water through seepage.
Moreover, noting the dependence of farmers on multinational companies for hybrid seeds, the growers called upon the government to promote production of hybrids by local companies through financial assistance and support in research studies for this purpose.
The matter deserves to be given serious attention by the federal and provincial agriculture ministries.
It would be illogical to question the consensus of the meeting that due to inappropriated policies followed by both the federal and provincial governments, the agriculture sector is set on the path of deterioration which is evident from the fact that its share in the GDP has declined to 19 percent from 28 percent of earlier years.
There was a sharp decline in growth rate in this sector to 2.2 percent last year from the previous year's 5.5 percent. These observations can hardly be refuted by the authorities concerned.
The most glaring setback in the agriculture sector is the country's reversion to a position of net importer of wheat from its status as an exporter in earlier years. Next season's prospects of an increase in wheat production, have been clouded by the sharp decline in the availability of irrigation water due to the failure of rainfall in the current monsoon season combined with the slow process of the melting of snow in the mountains.
Thus the country is likely to face the possibility of shortfall in domestic production to fully meet the consumption requirements.
It may be pointed out here that the setback to agriculture as highlighted by the declining trend in the wheat production, is likely to lead to acute hardships for the farming community of the country constituting 60 percent of the population.
In consequence, the country's entire programme of bringing about reduction in poverty to a desired extent, would run into jeopardy.
The main cause of a reversal in the agriculture sector is undoubtedly the growing shortfall of water in the existing dams and so until this disturbing situation is addressed boldly, further growth in the agriculture sector can hardly be expected.