The Punjab government will focus to accelerate growth rate of agriculture from about 2 percent (in the last five years) to between 3.5 percent and 4 percent in the next five years by improving productivity, enhancing agri-credit and expanding scope of smart agriculture.
"One percent growth in the agriculture sector leads directly and indirectly to over 0.4 percent growth in the overall economy of the province," reveal the recently released 'Punjab Growth Strategy 2023' (PGS). It further revealed that if the project growth rate is achieved during the next five years it alone will add to 0.6 to 0.8 percentage points to the overall growth rate of the economy of the Punjab.
According to the office paper, the agriculture sector features large in Punjab's economy; in 2017-18 it accounted for about 20 percent of the GPP and provided jobs to 40 percent of the labour force. The efficient development of the agriculture sector is therefore of prime importance and takes a central part in the government's Growth Strategy for increasing incomes, increasing value-added exports, creating employment and reducing poverty.
"The performance of the agriculture sector has been lacklustre in the province. The co-efficient of variation in the agriculture sector is close to 90 percent, suggesting a variable pattern of growth in the sector. In terms of its contribution to Punjab's GPP, the share of agriculture has dropped from 25 percent in 2008-09 to 20 percent in 2017-18. This decline in share has mostly been absorbed by the services sector. However, the sector's share in agriculture has not dropped anywhere close to this number, suggesting that per capita incomes have declined in the sector over the years, the Punjab growth strategy claims," it added.
The paper revealed that the government would double the investment in agriculture research and development to 0.4 percent of the GPP. "The agriculture research will be made more in line with the demands of the farmers. Moreover, the Punjab Agriculture Research Board (PARB) will be strengthened to provide significant coordination of research work by the government and other private institutes," it added.
"The government is focusing on enhancing the specialization and knowledge of devolution agents, introducing greater use of information and communication technology ICT, and is involved with private partners and civil society. To extend the efficiency of the extension services, the government will focus on developing its human resource and will implement speedily the projects such as 'Extension Services 2.0' and 'Agri-SMART', which will enable ICT-based interaction and information transfer to the farmers," it added.
According to the report, the government will support the growth challenges of small commercial farmers, especially women and youth, to bring about inclusive growth and increase in productivity in the agriculture sector, particularly in areas such as HVA farming and cottage level processing. The government will address disparities in productivity and prices along the agro-climatic zones, thus empowering the SCFs and women to induce agriculture productivity growth and poverty reduction at the same time.
The government also intends to take steps to ensure female education and awareness through female extension agents who can provide educational opportunities to the rural women. Also, the government will revamp its cropping patterns; agri-cropping zones will be moved towards more value added and high yielding crops given Punjab's climate change, water availability and soil suitability. The government will bring the focus on diversifying horticulture.
The report found that substandard sanitation coupled with scant market infrastructure accounts for 30 percent to 40 percent post-harvest losses. Furthermore, it is the middleman who benefits the most in the long supply chain by grabbing 60 percent to 70 percent of the value of the produce at the expense of growers. "The development of agriculture products' value chain is crucial for agriculture sector's sustainable growth. Well-functioning agriculture value chain ensures a fair price to farmers and adds value to production for local and export markets. Moreover, well-established value chains develop market infrastructure; promote research, improvement in management techniques and shelf life of the produce; and ultimately facilitate the connection between producers and final consumers. Market committees, private sector investment, ad-valorem fee, farmer credit, enhanced competition among brokers, direct farming and storing facilities are the key areas of the proposed market reforms by the Punjab government. In terms of the development of agriculture value chains, the government will focus on enhancing the connectivity of farms to the markets by developing the required infrastructure," it added.
The government has shown intention to shift the central markets to a modern, private sector and profit-oriented infrastructure. In this regard, the government will design systems to monitor the quality of daily price and quantity reports, increase the efficiency of traditional assemblers and wholesalers, improve the credit services to the farmers, and connect farms and markets cohesively by employing ICT based reforms. In addition to this, the food outlook programme will be further developed to provide information to the farmers.
Furthermore, the agriculture department is moving towards strategic crop cultivation and SMEs for technology and value addition. The agriculture department has recently started a horticulture value chain development programme with component of matching grants for SME processors. Several other programmes are also being planned for 2018-19 to assist processing sector SMEs in technology transfer, capacity development and provision of technical and marketing support. Value added sectors, including pack houses, diced frozen fruits and vegetables; jams, pickles and other preserves; edible and essential oil extraction; drying and dehydration; and pulp and concentrate extraction units, will be supported to increase demand for farm produce and enable export of horticulture.
The government will invest in research for the development of weather resistant varieties of seeds and crops. In this regard, the Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) techniques will be further developed and implemented. The main thrust of the policy to tackle climate change will be to establish an Institute for Climate Smart Agriculture (ICSA). Adaptation and building resilience in events of extreme weather, reducing the effects of underlying cross-cutting issues, mitigation of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and the formation of an enabling policy along with the suitable institutional and legal framework for implementation of CSA are the four broad areas of focus for the CSA. Similarly, research and extension will be further improved for the management of high delta crops such as sugarcane, rice and maize. Along with this, water resource conservation and precise irrigation techniques will be encouraged as part of on-farm water management along with the expansion of small-scale water storage capacity and rainwater harvesting at the farm level. Moreover, the quality of soil needs will be kept under check by focusing on improving application of fertilizer and by developing an evidence-based analytical structure to help the farmers.
The Strengthening Markets for Agriculture and Rural Transformation (SMART) programme aims to make the sector resilient to climate change. To protect the small farmers from yield losses due to natural calamities, the Crop Yield Insurance Index (CYII) stands as a safety net scheme that connects the insurance with the average yield at the tehsil level. The government will consider effective use of e-voucher subsidy, in which the vouchers are placed in packets of certified seeds and bags of fertilizers, etc. This will aid the farmers, as it allows a direct transfer of cash to the mobile banking account of farmer within 6 seconds of him sending the scratch code to a digitalized system.
The Kissan Cards will serve as a useful tool in the implementation of e-voucher subsidy, as the subsidy money transferred in the digital bank is linked with Kissan Cards, which operate like an ATM or debit card at the point of purchase.