If one considers the dire straits of Pakistan's land resources, one will find that the given traditional systems will not work. Policies for food security can be given up if the productive systems are radical and provocative. The change is noticeable and should be given serious thought.
The West and the agents of the West have put the fear of God into the policy of the developing world and yet, prior to 1960, no one ever thought about food security for it was always there, as a matter of public thought and not policy. When a policy such as this is given a fetish, over and above the requirements of other aspects, then those other aspects do seem necessary for life to be given up. So let us see if we give up this policy of food security, what is possible and what is doable.
For one, food security is not a function of wheat alone. It is also not a function of chemical fertilisers. Its thought-process includes many aspects. In the days of the forefathers, it determined our food security without many announcements and without recourse to a support from donor agencies. What was essential were contentment and the ability of the farmers, and the general harmony that prevailed in the country, despite a lengthy sojourn with colonialism.
The post-colonial period in the immediate was not so cataclysmic, as it is now days. The storm that has broken loose in the social world is due to the inability of mankind to understand that they cannot play God and that they cannot take on the future, without messing it up under one pretext or the other.
If food security is not the answer what is. Well, for one, food security is tied, in the land, to wheat production. This was done very cleverly under the PL480 programmes. The policy makers of those days did not understand, or if any one did, he did not speak out, the blind leading the deaf. There were, in those days, other options on maize and on millet and on 'maisy roti'.
In drinks we had 'tukh malanga' and 'sattoo' not to speak of lassi [salty of Peray wali sweet] and an occasional drink of wholesome milk at the roadside shop. All those niceties have been lost under the garb of modernisation and life according to the West. In helping us, they were actually helping themselves. Toothpaste was not there, but miswak was, and it could be of Neem or of Kikar [acacia].
Salt and coal were also used occasionally. Tooth decay was unheard off. Sugarcane, stripped by the teeth, helped the gums and took care of root canal disorders. No need to lament. That old game has been lost to the world of the Orient, as we are held hostage to the demand structure of the West and the jobs that we help create in those countries.
Now the world has changed. The world has understood that unless something different is done, the world will be swamped by the imprecise science of agriculture and the imprecise and parochial decisions of the West. The West will tell you, what are the possibilities that work and what are the possibilities that do not work. As one observes the world and its economic order, one thinks that unless the developing world breaks free of the West, its stunted development would remain.
The countries that have done exceedingly well are those that have kept themselves aloof from the influence of the West. If the elites of the developing world stay in the bondage to the West [Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz], this situation will remain. The bondage is because of the West and it will remain in the country, as those people who had the advantage of being vassals in the West have now come to siphon off the assets of the poor, to the advantage of the few.
The developing world was constantly under stormed by statements from the West that China was going to go bust, and yet when the financial crises came, that very country went to China, through its Secretary of State to get financial help for its buoyant financial markets. My thesis has always been that when a country is in the throes of lies and deceit, it will not last long, with its process of saying something and doing the reverse.
Consider the use of marginal lands for agriculture? Marginal lands should not be touched and marginal water should not be brought to use for cultivation. What centuries of agriculture was unable to do, the white gods did for us, in the matter of a decade. The water logging after the Indus Basin award is a case in point and as result, we in Pakistan, lost about six million hectares, that is one third of our arable land to waterlogging. All because we had link canals go across the normal contours.
Centuries of agriculture did not affect the country, but these great interventions have taken us to the brink of collapse. Take urbanisation, the WB had all along said that the rural areas were neglected and urbanisation was needed. So that the purchase of capital goods would be demanded from the West, and Pakistan would 'develop'. The programme was to eliminate anything that had been useful in the past and bring in everything from West, whether it suited our culture and our nuances or not.
China has kept its population afloat by being radically different. So have some of the other countries. While we sit, as naked apes, aping the orders of the West, the Chinese have gone forward by dint of their own work. As one talks to the Chinese, they do not brag, but simply say we have a lot of hard work to do to get to the place where we should be. The Chinese, for instance, are doing work in agriculture that is mind-boggling.
The greening of the Gobi desert is a feat by itself. There is no desert at all. The diligence of the farmers has paid off, despite very serious shortcomings in the planetary system with temperatures of minus 19 degrees centigrade. Their diligence has paid off. Again, they have made use of saline water or soils for the benefit of the production system. Land and water, not useable for sensitive crops [glycophytes], have been used for the economic production of food, fodder, and other products-even rice, sweet potato and Loquat and tomatoes etc. Mind boggling, as this information is, the use of marginal land, with marginal water, is the way out for Pakistan as well.
Wheat under drip-irrigation, cotton under-drip irrigation and we have been taken to the cleaners by the water management interventions since 1973. Where is that 40% water saving that would be translated to productive use? Why do interest groups perpetuate all these lies? Since the 1973 water channels, land preparation schemes, where is the productive base that was supposed to be doing all this and benefiting the country. In the nearly four decades of water management we have managed to de-manage water.
Halophytes can grow in soils or water containing significant amounts of inorganic salts. These arrangements can develop in Pakistan where the life-long concept of Banjar Qadeem and Khara Pani has been remained. Usually, all Faisalabadis would tell you and swear by it too that these resources are impediments to development and should not be touched, even by a long pole. These are not impediments, but opportunities. Salts occur naturally in soils and our irrigation practices, if not followed well, will lead to further salt build up.
Where rivers take a long time to go to the sea and the rainfall is sparse, the build up is significant as the evaporation of the water takes place, leaving the salts behind. In arid areas this can lead to the formation of lakes or in brackish ground water, salinized soils and or salt deposits. In Pakistan, there are many areas where this can take place. This would be the subject of our next week.