LAHORE: Farmers’ representatives regretted that Pakistan could not take full advantage of its potential in the year 2022 as no quantum jump was recorded in the production of any crop and the main focus of the government remained on other sectors such as housing and construction at the policy level than attaining food security.
Co-founder of Agriculture Republic Aamer Hayat Bhandara while talking to the Business Recorder on Monday said that the current year (2022) was truly a different year for Pakistan than the rest of the world as we saw a constitutional change of political power in Pakistan, a huge shortage of wheat (once an exporting commodity) and devastating impacts of climate change in form of torrential rains and floods.
“We had 36 precious months after pandemic to monitor, plan and act in the agriculture sector from crops to dairy and fisheries to forestry to not only ensure our national food security but the global players to provide food essentials internationally,” he added.
Value chains were not developed, agriculture marketing systems were not updated and value additions were not introduced. Besides, banks were also not forced by the government to enhance their limits of agri-loans keeping the higher inputs costs instead they were free to increase the interest ratio putting another burden on the poor farmers indirectly impacting the common man and the exchequer, Aamer regretted.
However, he said, apart from all the above challenges we still have an opportunity to act wisely, and support the farming communities by engaging agriculture technologies not only to promote mechanization but also to encourage smart farming, biotechnology and fertilizers.
Agri Forum Pakistan Chairman Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal termed the passing year as the worst for the agricultural sector as he said we failed to achieve any new milestone in any crop for the population of Pakistan and Afghanistan too which relies heavily on wheat, sugarcane, rice and jaggery of Pakistan for its inhabitants. He said while making any plan we count only our population of 220 million while we should count it at 250 million adding Afghanis to it.
“We need to produce at least 30 million tons of wheat annually, around 8 million tons of rice, producing over 6 million metric tons of sugar and reviving our cotton crop which fuels 60 per cent of our exports,” Ibrahim Mughal said.
He said we were producing 6 million tons of rice for the last many years but we need to take this figure to 8-10 million tons so as to make sufficient rice available for exports to fetch at least US 4 billion dollars to US 5 billion dollars foreign exchange to our country. Similarly, he said producing more sugar means enabling the government to open a permanent window for the export of sweeteners.
Farmers Associate Pakistan (FAP) Director Abad-ur-Rehman said this year there was a mixed trend regarding prices and production of different agricultural commodities. Prices in the case of most of the crops remained stable except cotton and sugarcane. Wheat, spring maize and cotton suffered in production due to climate change or harsh weather while mustard, rice and autumn maize achieved good production.
Abad pointing to short supply and high prices of agricultural inputs, which was the common complaint of all the representatives, said it even forced the growers to sell their animals or trees to meet the expense.
In 2023, he suggested, the government should take the timely decision to import wheat, ensuring availability of fertilizers and pesticides, keeping prices of diesel and electricity in access of the growers and extending targeted subsidies to save the salaried class from inflation. He warned that if the government again neglected this very important sector in 2023, it might create numerous complications for the country.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022