THE cost price squeeze in agriculture has come to stay basically because the discrepancy and the inequity in the system are not addressed.

The cost of all farm inputs have increased at least 20 times or more while policy makers have been lukewarm in increasing the output price. The terms of trade have worked against the farmer.

In public policy it is always better to attack a problem at the initial stage when it is simple to solve rather than wait till it gets to a cancerous state.

During the last eight years, agriculture has been in the hands of novices who refused every bit of sane advice that was given occasionally to them. The result is that we are at a crossroad where the options are no longer easy. The food crises refuse to go away.

Food security is now a huge problem for the policy makers and the policy doers. Today I propose to look at the other side and to talk of the much-touted white revolution. There is no white revolution in the offing no matter what any one says. I go three years back when livestock had shown a growth rate of 9.6 per cent. I enquired from the concerned individual how this figure had been given and he gave me a reply that was not to be forgotten easily. He stated ‘I had given a growth rate of 1.3 per cent and they some how managed to massage it to 9.6 per cent’. The same thing happened the next year and the year after when nothing new had been done in the sector.

Special monies were dished out and special white skins were imported from New Zealand and were introduced to the local buffalo. Consultants to the Third World countries are usually third rated individuals in their own country. One went to two, then to 14 and then in a meeting the Americans told me that they had 24 consultants in all.

The great MNCs that were the pride of Shaukat Aziz and his minister for innovation in a recent meeting that I also attended indicated that the amount of milk that was stated to the president of this country was short by about 40 per cent and that meant that instead of 32 billion liters it was in the vicinity of 20 billion liters. That came as a shock for that meant that the MNCs were operating at a loss. Now if the MNCs were running at a loss why were they not augmenting their corporate plan rather than seeking subsidies from the government of Punjab.

The MNCS have over capacity. That was built in because they did not have any corporate planners. They are so short of corporate culture? Unbelievable! The MNCs it transpired are short of money, so they want handouts from the government.

The last time that the white revolution was a target of the federal government, they decided that chillers should be given to farmers so that milk collection would be easy. Instead of giving these to the village communities, it transpired that only 16 of the 1,000 chillers went to the farmers, the rest were gobbled up by the MNCs and their surrogates.

Now they want more of the same because last time there was not enough electricity for a three-phase chiller to work and now they want single-phase ones over and above the others.

There are all kinds of activities but these are short of productivity increases. One of the suggestions is that Australian Sahiwal Friesian [AFS] should be imported and before 2015 they would be the biggest animal farms in Asia. We had a prime minister who wanted to make Lahore the Paris of Asia.

It was as a consultant to Kyrgyzstan that I made the point that they should not go fro exotic Friesian animals but stick to their hardy local breeds. They took the advice but not before some casualties to the imported herd. For who would manage the weather for them? Who would manage the heat for these ASF breeds that the Australians have foisted on to us? Instead of the usual 60 liters of water, these new hybrids need 200 gallons of water. And we are surplus in water. Are we not? The people on the canals can die of drinking polluted water.

When intentions are perverted one can be rest assured that no matter how much money or finances you put into the system that system would not work. Money is the requirement of the oldest profession in the world. Nations are built on character not on money or the lack of it.

The consultants know what was required to be done and they have chosen not to do so? That is a hard work. Why go for hard work when things can be had from the locals without any harm or let. No lament! Honest mistakes are made. At the same time inputs are getting expensive and what if the price of milk is Rs100 per litre. The terms of trade will be in favour of MNCs. Fat cows that they are.