Agriculture in the country stands at a crossroads. Farmers’ incomes are falling. Holdings are progressively getting smaller. Intensive agriculture is degrading natural resources. The availability of water is decreasing. Selective cultivation has narrowed down biodiversity. The tree population has gone down. Many species of birds have vanished. Pesticides have contaminated water and soil.
To cut a long story short, both food and nutritional security are threatened. The prescription that experts give to solve all these problems is aggressive diversification.
Diversification reflects a change in business activities based on flexible and differentiated responses to changing opportunities created by new production technology or market signals. More specifically, diversification is defined as “change in product (or enterprise) choice and input use decisions based on market forces and the principles of profit maximisation.”
The concept of diversification conveys different meanings to different people at different levels. For example, at the national level, it generally conveys a movement of resources, especially labour, out of agriculture to industry and services, a sort of structural transformation. Within agriculture, however, diversification is considered a shift of resources from one crop to a larger mix of crops, keeping in view the varying nature of risks and expected returns from each crop activity, and adjusting it in such a way that it leads to optimum income.
Diversification is a frequently used risk management strategy that involves participating in more than one activity. It has the added advantage of mitigating price risk as well as fluctuations in outputs. The advantage of engaging in different production systems at the farm level depends upon the level of within-farm heterogeneity in soil and land resources, as well as biological and economic factors, such as the possibility of interruption in insect and diseases cycle, the extent of the sustainability effects, and the gains in fuller utilisation of resources in the diversified compared to the mono-crop production system.
Diversification of agricultural production has frequently been urged as a means of increasing agricultural income and thereby improving agricultural conditions. Many farmers secure relief in times of agricultural distress by turning to the production of new products or by increasing their production of products that previously were relatively unimportant in their farming operations.
The advantages of diversification to individual farmers are numerous and are such as to recommend this policy to most farmers; however the extent of these advantages is conditioned by the number of farmers attempting to secure them. Obviously if any considerable portion of the total number of farmers made similar changes, the price advantage of the particular product would quickly disappear as result of increased supply. Consequently, greater diversification practiced by a few farmers presents opportunities for them, but greater diversification practiced by all or even a majority of all farmers is an entirely different matter.
Crop diversification is generally viewed as a shift from traditionally grown less remunerative crops to more remunerative crops. Market infrastructure development and certain other price related supports also induce crop shift. Often low volume high-value crops like spices and medicinal herbs also aid in crop diversification. Higher profitability and stability in production also induce crop diversification, for example sugarcane replacing rice and wheat. Crop substitution and shift are also taking place in the areas with distinct soil problems.
Cultivation of secondary crops has been proved very helpful in reducing the risk factor for the farmers in major crops. It is reported that secondary crops like maize, millets, potatoes, sweet potatoes, oil seeds, pulses, bananas, ginger and other vegetable crops as profitable dry season crops. These crops can be produced in 90 days and be harvested for ultimate sale in local markets. The per acre yield of such crops is quite high and would be profitable. The fertility of land is retained when leaves of such crops are used as green manures.
Pakistan has diverse agro-climatic conditions, good natural resource base (land and water) and large network of irrigation system suitable for diversified agriculture production system. Agriculture sector, comprising mainly of crops and livestock sub-sectors in almost equal proportions, provides livelihood for two-thirds of country’s population living in rural areas. In spite of an impressive increase in agriculture production, it has not resulted in improving the living standards of the rural population to the extent desired. Small farms are continuously increasing because of land division due to inheritance. This is impacting agricultural productivity, as small farmers are generally resource poor and need greater attention.
The writer is Islamabad-based freelance journalist. He can be reached at saleemshahid.journalist@yahoo.com