Agricultural sector is continuously witnessing a downward trend as it has registered an overall decline of over 10 per cent in several major and minor crops during the last three years. Experts underline that lack of research, insufficient funds allocations and discouragement to domestic crop varieties are among few major impediments in the development of agriculture.
Speaking to a selected group of journalists on Wednesday, Agri Forum Pakistan Chairman Ibrahim Mughal said that the lack of research and development had resulted in a major decline in agriculture produce, which had jeopardised the nation’s food security. He pointed out that all major and minor crops, including wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane, gram and pulses registered a negative trend since last three years.
Mughal highlighted that cotton, the lifeline of Pakistan’s textile exports, had witnessed a major decline of over 11 per cent during the last three years. He indicated that cotton production had dropped from 8.8 million bales to 7.8 million bales, but neither federal government nor provincial agriculture departments were paying attention to this pressing issue.
Citing the example of rice, he pointed out that rice production had registered a decline of over eight percent as its production had fallen from 3.7 million tonnes to 3.4 million tonnes. Similarly, gram output witnessed a decline of around 30 percent as its production had been dropped from 0.658 million tonne to 0.468 million tonne. Mughal also indicated that maize crop, in which extensive modernisation and hybrid seed were being used, also witnessed a reduction of around four percent as maize production had dropped from 2.6 million tonnes to 2.5 million tonnes.
Similar trend had been shown in pulses, which registered a drop of over 24 per cent as pulses production witnessed a decline from 0.83 million tonnes to 0.635 million tonnes. However, wheat was the only crop which showed slightly positive trend during the last three years. Wheat production jump up around 0.4 percent and touched 18.5 million tonnes during the last three years.
Mughal believed that the country could not grow without overhauling the major economic sectors, including agriculture. He highlighted that agriculture output had been dropped by 10 per cent and at the same time population busted by around 8.8 per cent in the country, which clearly highlight the magnitude of the problem. Only eight million heads had been increased in the Punjab alone, he underlined.
He noted that declining per acre yield of different major and minor crops and stagnant production of livestock sector was also a serious threat for the province, especially in the wake of increasing population.
Speaking about the livestock sub-sector, Mughal observed that three years back, milk production in the country was hovering around four litres per animal per day and it was the same today. He disclosed that average milk production was around 4,000 litres per animal per annum globally, but in Pakistan it was around 1,200 litres per animal per annum.
Counting various reasons for this decline, Agri Forum Pakistan Chief said that in Punjab, the research sector was totally neglected. He indicated that the government had placed non technical people as head of research organisations, such as the Punjab Agricultural Research Board (PARB).
He claimed that a new wheat variety, ‘Sahar’ was introduced by the sitting PARB chief in 2007 without proper screening, which resulted in that 42 percent wheat cultivation area was under Sahar variety last season. He pointed out that owing to lack of research and proper screening this year, Sahar variety witnessed severe rust in Narowal, Sialkot and Gujranawala regions. He said the complaint of blackish wheat could not be addressed this year too as the farmers had stocked a major portion of crop for seed, but the agriculture department did not have an answer to the problem.
Highlighting the poor policies of the provincial agriculture department, Mughal said that it was not understandable why the agriculture research body was established in Lahore instead of Multan and Faisalabad. It was merely wastage of public resources.
He also criticised bureaucrats for what he said was discouraging for the local researchers to develop new crop varieties suitable to local environment. He indicated that foreign companies were selling a hybrid maize seed bag at Rs4,000 per bag while the same was available in India at Rs1,000 per bag, in Indonesia at Rs850 and Thailand at Rs850-860 per bag. He urged the Punjab chief minister to encourage local scientists to develop inexpensive high yielding varieties compatible that are compatible with the local environment.
