THE planning and development department of Sindh set up a special unit in May to ensure the Global Goals are achieved. Three of these goals — SDGs 2, 6 and 13 — are directly linked with the country’s agricultural sector.

Sindh holds a special place as far as its contribution to the overall agrarian economy of the country is concerned, though the province is confronted by many issues ranging from poor governance, lack of support to small and medium-sized farmers and a fragile regulatory framework.

“Despite having a climatic advantage, Sindh’s crop yields are decreasing. It’s a serious issue,” said Dr Fateh Marri, project coordinator of the multimillion-rupee Sindh Agriculture Growth Project (SAGP) being funded by the World Bank.

Sindh is also believed to have huge productivity potential, but it remains largely untapped.

Moreover, the province is faced with a large influx of people from other parts of Pakistan who put an additional burden on its resources and infrastructure.

Provisional results of the latest census have not gone down well with Sindh’s political leadership. They believe that by showing a reduced population of the province the federal government wants to deprive it of its increased share in the divisible pool in the National Finance Commission Award.

‘We need to develop crops under a research-oriented approach. After all, it’s the farm sector that has to ensure food security and zero hunger,’ an official says

Mahmood Nawaz Shah, vice president of the Sindh Abadgar Board, believes that the province comes up with an impressive output of wheat every year despite pre- and post-harvest losses at various stages.

Since the province lacks storage capacity, only a limited quantity is procured from farmers at support price and the rest is hoarded or sold in the market at lower prices.

Sindh’s total official wheat storage capacity is close to 700,000 tonnes. Of the four million tonnes of wheat produced by the province, only 1.3m tonnes are procured every year after hiring rented premises.

“We need to look into these issues. Some baseline data and scientific studies can help us achieve the SDGs directly related to our agriculture sector,” Mr Shah says. “We need to develop crops under a research-oriented approach. After all, it’s the farm sector that has to ensure food security and zero hunger.”

Another issue is the worsening quality of water. An inquiry report submitted recently to the Sindh High Court found that more than three quarters of water in 14 districts of the province was unsafe for human consumption.

In addition, the contamination of freshwater bodies, including major canals and lakes such as Manchhar, face a perennial disposal of effluent or domestic and industrial wastewater.

The lake awaits its rehabilitation that could revive economy of the thousands of fishermen whose livelihood depends on it.

The timely availability of water remains essential for achieving desired growth in the agriculture sector. However, being a lower riparian region, Sindh continues to face water shortage more often than not. The shortage of water in early Kharif season adversely affected the rice crop.

However, this time water flows were available timely, brightening the outlook for a bumper rice crop.

The provincial SDGs support unit has now started working to connect the dots at different level. Rehana Ghulam Ali Memon, the unit’s project coordinator, says the provincial government has sped up work to streamline, localise and implement the 2030 development agenda. She believes that while the unit will oversee implementation phases, it is the departments concerned that have to play a proactive role.

The good news perhaps is that draft of the agriculture policy has been shared with stakeholders in Sindh under SAGP. The project also addresses the issues concerning onion, date palm, paddy and chillies. The livestock sector is a separate component of the project.

The policy is now being aligned with national food security policy being worked out by the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.

Growers’ bodies, private sector and the departments concerned are in the loop and officials hope that aligned departments would perform better under the unit’s umbrella to ensure Sindh meets the global targets.

“Now there is a great emphasis that this policy should be framed in the light of the SDGs. We need to produce not only food, but it should be nutritious too,” says Dr Fateh Marri of the SAGP.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, September 25th, 2017