THE surging food import bill is assuming serious proportions, making it imperative to focus on a stagnant agriculture sector. These huge imports, a result of policy failures, can only be reduced by raising farm productivity and production.

After all, 65 per cent population-- directly or indirectly involved in agriculture-- has not been able to feed 35 per cent of fellow country men.

In the West, only two to three per cent of the population is involved in agriculture, feeds 98 per cent of its country men but also exports the trading surplus to other countries.

Pakistan’s rising imports include milk and milk products, meat, vegetables, wheat, dry fruits, tea, spices, edible oil, sugar and pulses. With the exception of tea, the country can produce the entire range of these commodities.

Even in the case of tea, had the government not handed over the project to a multinational company and forgotten the experiments, the country could have seen some kind of drop in its import bill. Pakistan is the fifth largest producer of milk and still imports milk products. The dairy farming which can serve both domestic and foreign markets has not been developed.

The last seven years’ data reveals how the country was failed by its own economic wizards, who had only one recipe for everything i.e. import everything and anything. Issues afflicting the agriculture sector, which could have provided solution to the food crisis, were totally ignored. The development of agriculture could have taken the country out of food crisis and resultantly Pakistan would have been converted into a food basket for foreigners.

Pakistan imported items comprising “food group” worth Rs50 billion in 2001-02. The bill went up to Rs58 billion in 2002-03, Rs69 billion in 2003-04 and Rs84 billion in 2004-05. In 2005-06 imports almost doubled within a year and ended up at Rs164 billion. Last year, the import bill was Rs169 billion and in fiscal 2007-08 it is expected to end up at a staggering figure of Rs235 billion.

Critics claim that domestic issues affecting the edifice of agriculture are being allowed to worsen, both at policy and management levels. The procurement price mechanism is used to keep the prices depressed. The water shortages are worsening day by day, with no one pushed to deal with them. Agriculture research has been in disarray; the wheat and rice seeds were last evolved in 1991 and 1994 respectively. No disease- resistant variety of cotton has so far been developed and the country regularly misses the production targets, whether it be major crops or minor crops.

In 2007-08, rice target, fixed at 5.7 million tons, was missed by 300,000 tons. Similarly, wheat target, fixed at 23.5 million, was missed by around two million tons, cotton target suffered by 2.5 million bales, gram target was set at 0.84 million tons but only 0.5 million tons could be produced and lintels’ target also suffered by 300,000 tons. Fixing of these targets and then missing these lies at the heart of current food crisis and ever-inflating import bill.

All food crops, including wheat, maize, rice, sorghum, millets and barley, have suffered individually and collectively during the last eight years and now are translating in ballooning import bill.

In 1999-00, Pakistan produced 28.38 million tons of these crops for a population of around 125 million, with per capita availability of 227kg. In 2006-07, when population had gone up to nearly 160 million, the production came to around 31 million tons, and per capita availability of food dropped to 190kg – a drop of 37kg per person. This drop defines the food crisis.

The import policy took a bizarre turn when the government even allowed import of tomatoes and onion from India. The government functionaries, instead of finding faults in their own policies, started justifying the import for the sake of expanding economy. All the ministers, virtually without exception, were harping on one-point agenda; let the size of economy grow even if the country has to import and export the same commodity simultaneously. It became reference refrain with the officials unable or unwilling to pay heed to ground realities and taking corrective measures.

No one realised or recognised the fact that wheat is sown over 600 million acres in the world. There are 16 leading producer countries on the globe and Pakistan falls at the 12th position as far as per acre yield is concerned. From among 16 leading producers of rice, Pakistan falls at 16th position for per acre yield. Similarly, out of 17 leading producers of cotton, Pakistan is placed at the 15th.

The present government has to carry out an analysis of what went wrong and what needs to be done.

The farmers think that if the government can somehow ensure required facilities for cutting down post-harvest losses for availability of water, high-yielding seeds and right price for their produce, they can bring the import bill down drastically.

Pakistan can become an exporter of the foodstuff if the government concentrates on agriculture, corrects past mistakes and takes new initiatives particularly on two sub-sectors i.e. horticulture and livestock.