To try and contain all that the National Agricultural Research Centre has done in its forty-year history in this small space would do a huge injustice. BR Research had a chat with Dr Azeem Khan, the Director General of NARC, on the importance of this 1,400 acre national treasure and the way forward for agriculture in Pakistan.
Khan has been with NARC for over thirty years. Below are edited transcripts of a very fruitful (pun intended) discussion.
BR Research: Tell us a little bit about NARC and what it does?
Azeem Khan: Six hundred varieties for food security didn't come out of nowhere! We are the national co-ordinators for all of Pakistan's commodities. We are the varietal valuators.
We obtain the genetic material from abroad. We store it, climatize it. We have 250,000 grafted plants that can start giving you food in two years. We have 94 labs, internationally accredited and certified. We have gene banks with 35,000 accessions, and out of 1,700 gene banks in the world ours ranks at number 22.
We co-ordinate with the provincial institutions. We are a federal body; wherever there aren't any provincial research body, that's where we are. International material, international linkages, that's us.
Right now, Pakistan has more rice, wheat, and sugarcane than is needed. There's no shortage anywhere; I'd like to think we had something to do with that.
BRR: Why is the CDA so keen on discontinuing NARC?
AK: They're saying they can generate Rs150 billion in revenue after converting NARC into a commercial venture or a housing scheme without understanding that Rs108 billion has been spent on this institution, of which 70-80 percent came from donors. And not just the money: human resources, time.
No progressive country would ever destroy its own institutions. They (CDA) use words like 'relocate' or they find technicalities in our building plans to justify themselves. It took us 40 years to get to this level, and in that time, we've contributed an estimated Rs4.3 trillion to the economy.
BRR: Commodity exports are down, and were down even before the global crash. What are some of the measures that need to be taken?
AK: One choice is policy change - bring down the cost of the farmer, make inputs affordable. We could reduce cost and compete in the international market. But this cannot be done in the short term; no government can provide that much money. Some package will be announced, but its net impact won't be too great. The real solution lies in out-of-the-box thinking: We should allocate some area to the crops that we're importing.
BRR: Such as?
AK: Pulses, oilseeds, soya beans, olives, and palm oil. We've already begun work on some of these. For instance, olives; Pakistan imports 30,000 tons of olive oil. Right now, we grow olives on 6,000 acres, and we've got a project from the government worth Rs2.4 billion to grow olives on 50,000 acres. But we would want a scale of 300,000-400,000 acres. We have identified 35 varieties, compatible with Bhawalpur, Thar, Cholistan, and the areas of harsher climate; in fact, FATA produces the best olives in the world.
Within 5-8 hours of harvest, you can process the olives to produce olive oil. The value chain will generate employment. It's already happening; this will reduce imports, and the export market for olive oil is enormous.
Similarly, Pakistan is deficient in soya bean; it's a definite demand in the poultry industry. We import Rs50-60 billion worth of soya bean annually. Its grain contains 40 percent protein, and it has a huge value chain - soya meat, soya milk, even soya oil. Moreover, its leaves are rich in nitrogen and shed naturally when the crop matures. So, wherever soya beans are planted, the soil naturally becomes enriched. So, we should shift certain areas away from rice or cotton to items that we import.
BRR: So what is your take on the support price?
AK: There should be a support price on wheat, but it is creating a problem when we don't link the price with the international market. Ultimately, the surplus isn't marketed.
Rather, there needs to be a mechanism to promote choice; if the farmer switches to another crop, the commodity should be insured through procurement.
Also, the technologies that reduce cost of production or improve productivity should be majorly invested in - the availability of technologies, their demonstration, and service centers. Instead of just announcing a support price again and again, not being able to procure it, not being able to dispose it, and eventually having to subsidise it, some long-term investments need to be made.
BRR: What are some of NARC's contributions we might have seen in fruits?
AK: We brought the king ruby grape to Pakistan. This gives the farmer a return of Rs500,000-600,000 from one acre. We brought Kiwi into Pakistan from Nepal using our personal contacts.
We have a bilateral program with Australia for oranges. Those varieties will be prepared this year. This will bring the availability of fresh citrus from 3-4 months to 6-7 months.
The Mexican lemon, which is seedless; avocado with antioxidant enzymes from Tanzania; passion fruit from Tanzania; and nineteen varieties of bananas from China of which four were the best, which gave four times the production - these are some fruits NARC has brought, to name just a few.
BRR: What is the scope for value addition on these items?
AK: We have huge quantities of fruit and vegetables, but 35-40 percent are wasted. There's no value chain - not more than 3 percent value addition.
With value addition, we could be making 10 times the value. By making achaar, candies, dried preserved fruits, we could not only generate employment but obtain enormous export value.
For instance, Thailand came to us for making dried fruits. The demand there is enormous. We've started work on that. Our engineers made the machines; they're quite small and simple, and you can use them to create preserved dry fruit, which have a life of one year. This can result in industrialisation in rural areas.
Onion, tomatoes, the potato powder used in crisps such as Pringles - the technology to produce these is simple. So why can't we do it? It brings employment, export value, and availability around the year.
BRR: Other establishments of PARC - or Pakistani research institutes in general - are not as reputable. Why?
AK: In terms of promotion or advocacy, researchers in the agricultural sector don't do much. Even we wouldn't have ever highlighted our 40-year history if it weren't for the ongoing situation with the CDA!
In Pakistan, only 18 percent of the scientific manpower in research are PhDs. In India, this number is 80 percent. Our investment in research around 4 years ago was 0.21 percent of the agriculture GDP. Now, it's 0.18 percent - the lowest in south Asia (including Nepal).
NARC is still surviving because we have the will, and we have the international linkages. Agricultural research used to have a Rs26 billion PSDP.
Now, it's a mere Rs1.5 billion. What can you do with Rs1.5 billion?
The government needs to recognise the importance of agriculture and understand the gestation period of the return to investment.