The National Assembly Standing Committee on Food and Agriculture recommended Monday that decision to transfer Ministry of Food and Agriculture to the provinces should be reversed as its devolution could have serious repercussions for the food security issue in the country.
The committee, which met with Javed Iqbal Warraich MNA in the chair, said that the food insecurity was a grave issue that constantly threatened disaster prone countries like Pakistan and staving off the danger needed centralised mechanism and planning.
The committee said that provinces were not able to respond to the emergence of such threats owing to infrastructural deficiencies. The committee observed that agricultural research and increase of yield in different crops in the country was trans-boundary and tans-provincial issues and they would involve duplication and resultantly loss of funds in case of devolution. The committee said that provinces at present did not have proper research infrastructure. The committee observed that agricultural research set-up was kept at the federal level due to various technical and professional reasons, which included research on trans-boundary and trans-provincial issues, differences in infrastructure, capacity of provincial research systems (federal system to fill in the gaps), presence of PARC research system in Gilgit–Baltistan, PARC as technical arm of National Seed Council, custodian of Variety Evaluation Committee, custodian of National Plant Genetic Resources, research to protect Pakistan’s imports and exports and inter-provincial trade and commerce and linkage with international research institutions.
The committee members also said that the growers would face multiple problems owing to devolution. They said if the ministry was devolved, the PASSCO would be non-existent and it would provide an open field to the middlemen (Artees) to exploit the farmers while purchasing wheat or other grain crops. The committee added that the absence of PASSCO would cause hoarding as well and exasperate the threat of food insecurity. The committee said that PASSCO should not be disbanded as it procured million of tons of grains, especially wheat and rice, every year for the people. The committee after debating the issue recommended to the government that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture should not be devolved otherwise the food security would be adversely impacted in the country. The committee also added that in case of any constitutional compulsions, the government must take measures to retain at least Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) and National Agriculture Research Centre, PASSCO and other agricultural subsidiary components vital to national research and procurement at the federal level. The committee also recommended that they should be allocated funds also in the upcoming budget. The committee further directed the Secretary Ministry of Food and Agriculture to close unnecessary projects and give a detailed briefing about what projects should be recommended for continuity. The committee also expressed grave concern over unavailability of gunny bags and sale of wheat below the government announced wheat support price of Rs 950 per 40 kg.
The Committee recommended that existing policy and system of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture for PASSCO should be revised and its administration should be restructured. Syed Amir Ali Shah, MNA, Nadeem Afzal Chan, MNA, Abdul Majeed Khan Khanan Khail, MNA, Muhammad Arshad Khan Laghari, MNA, Rana Tanveer Hussain, MNA, Dr Abdul Kadir Khanzada, MNA, Syed Haider Ali Shah, MNA, Asghar Ali Jutt, MNA and Chaudhry Tassadiq Masood Khan, MNA attended the meeting.
But the way the organizations lke PASSCO and PARC are being administred at the moment does not justify the existence. For example current managment of PARC has stopped professional work and has killed innovative projects and new professinal manpower brought into the stream in last three years. The justification they had is contrary to the on ground realities. So there is a need to shift PARC/NARC and its institutions to the province of station. Or otrherwise bring in a reserach minded knowledgeable professional like Dr. Zafar Altaf into the system to deliver products in minimum possible time.
PASSCO: If you look into the cost of handling wheat and other commodities by PASSCO, and annual subsidy incurred then you can not justify this ailing organization. Punjab and Sindh Food Departments cost is signficantly below the cost of the PASSCO. So why the provincial food departments can not be elevated. This is a game to not strengthn the preovinces and keep a window of corrption open for the Federal Minister and is cronies.
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