The fragile agriculture sector of the country which is already facing water deficit has been burdened with additional taxes and costs amounting Rs 100 billion during FY 2008-09, which has turned farming into an uneconomical business, Pakistan Agri forum said here on Thursday.
Talking to Business Recorder, PAF President Ibrahim Mughal said that the recent increase in price of diesel has burdened the agriculturists with additional Rs 55 billion to run 8,00,000 tube wells. The increase in electricity tariff will make the farmers poorer by Rs 10 to 12 billions if they continue to run their 1,75,000 tube-wells on electricity.
He said that the on-going and uncontrolled black-marketing and profiteering of the urea fertiliser at the rate of Rs 900 per 50 KG bag instead of government fixed price of Rs 610 per bag is also depriving the agriculture sector of Rs 8 to 10 billion this year. Mughal said that the increase in prices of tractors, seeds, pesticides, etc has also immeasurably depressed the agriculture sector which used to contribute as much as 50 percent to the GDP.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's renowned economist Shahid Javed Burki has said since Pakistan does not have a trade policy nor any kind of industrial policy, it can revive its economy only by using its long neglected agriculture sector. He said Pakistan has not framed a comprehensive agriculture policy for years. For a country with its kind of endowments, it should be a major participant in the international agriculture system.
He regretted that with its vast agriculture potential, Pakistan is an importer of the products that should be produced at home. Agro-economists say that agriculture has an important direct and indirect role in generating economic growth. Pakistan has a rich and vast natural resource base, covering various ecological and climatic zones; hence the country has great potential for producing all types of food commodities.
They say that importance of agriculture to the economy is seen in three ways: first, it provides food to consumers and fibres for domestic industry; second, it is a source of scarce foreign exchange earnings; and third, it provides a market for industrial goods. It may be added that the total geographical area of Pakistan is 79.6 million hectares. About 27 percent of the area is currently under cultivation.
Of this area, 80 percent is irrigated. In this regard, Pakistan has one of the highest proportions of irrigated cropped area in the world. The cultivable waste lands offering good possibilities of crop production amount to 8.9 million hectares. Growth in cropped area is very impressive: from 11.6 million hectares in 1947 to 22.6 million hectares. Most of Pakistan is classified as arid to semi-arid because rainfall is not sufficient to grow agricultural crops, forest and fruit plants and pastures.
About 68 percent of the geographical area has annual rainfall of 250 mm, whereas about 24 percent has annual rainfall of 251 to 500 mm. Only 8 percent of the geographical area has annual rainfall exceeding 500 mm. Thus supplemental water is required for profitable agricultural production, either from irrigation or through water harvesting.