Pakistan’s agriculture sector is short on growth and productivity compared to many other countries with comparable agro-climatic conditions. The most commonly cited constraints that widely explain our suboptimal agricultural productivity include limited usage of high-yielding seeds, insufficient application of fertilisers, inadequate water availability, ineffective extension services, and farmers’ poor access to agricultural credit.

However, a relatively neglected area which has not so far received the required focus in the entire analysis is the human factor — poor knowledge, training, and efficiency of our farm workers, who carry out day-to-day operations on agricultural farms.

The agriculture sector has been evolving and transforming itself continuously since Pakistan’s independence in 1947, but over the last two decades, many aspects of agricultural farming have changed drastically in many ways. Unfortunately, concerted efforts have so far not been made by the public or private sector to train farm workers in sync with evolving changes to bridge this productivity gap.

Over the years, the usage of hybrid seeds and genetically modified seeds (Bt cotton in Pakistan) has increased several times. Crop production technology for such high-yielding seeds is relatively more complex and technical and requires a new set of agricultural inputs and skills to achieve higher yields. Therefore, farming with such seeds is no longer as simple as it was in the case of traditional open-pollinated seeds, which our farmers have been growing for decades.

With greater use of technology, the sector is becoming more capital-intensive, inevitably demanding trained labour

Due to the population explosion, land holdings are decreasing rapidly, putting severe pressure on farmers to get the most out of land and other agricultural inputs, whose prices are continuously rising. As a result, improved resource conservation technologies and farming practices, such as high-efficiency irrigation solutions, laser land leveling, advanced crop nutrients, precision sprayers, pneumatic drills, etc, are making inroads in Pakistan’s agriculture sector. All of these naturally require higher levels of skills.

The introduction of short-duration crop varieties and their widespread adoption have pushed the maximum allowable crop intensity (crops per year), which previously stood at two, up to three in various pockets of central Punjab.

For instance, 1509 Basmati Rice (Kissan Basmati), grown extensively in Indian and Pakistani Punjab, matures in less than 90 days vis-à-vis 140 days required for traditional super basmati variety. Likewise, several varieties of maise and sesame now take around 105 days for maturity. Higher crop intensity necessitates a higher level of mechanisation and trained workers in order to complete operations in a short time span between the two crops.

Like in other countries, farm mechanisation is also rising in Pakistan, and it is no longer limited to tractors, water pumps, and threshers. The usage of general-purpose and crop-specific self-propelled and tractor-driven agricultural machinery and implements has been continuously increasing in almost all farming operations that include land preparation, levelling, sowing, irrigation, spraying, weeding, harvesting, threshing, and grading.

With greater use of machines and technology, the sector is becoming more capital-intensive, inevitably demanding trained drivers and skilled operators/farm workers.

With an increase in per capita income, several countries have been experiencing a noticeable shift in their population’s dietary patterns. The weightage of starchy staple foods in the diet is decreasing in favour of diversified and nutritious food, which contains a greater share of animal and dairy products, fruits, and vegetables.

With such large-scale consumption, these countries progressively enforce stringent international food safety regulations and a traceability regime on imported products.

Many Pakistani farms have already achieved certification of Global Good Agricultural Practices (Global GAP), and their number continues to increase. For our traditional farm workers, who lack the appropriate education, training, and skills, it would be difficult to comply with certification requirements and traceability regimes along with adhering to quality standards and food safety guidelines.

ICT-enabled services and information like weather forecasting, agricultural advisory services, market rates of agricultural commodities and inputs, et., are getting popular in rural areas. With this, we need to enable our workforce to take advantage of such technological advancements in their daily work.

In Pakistan, the threat of climate change is rapidly escalating, necessitating a greater shift in agricultural practices. Adopting climate-smart agricultural practices, including but not limited to selecting new crop varieties, changing planting dates, and using climate-smart irrigation and pest management, inherently requires well-informed decision making and trained workers.

In view of such technological transformation and environmental changes, it can be concluded that Pakistan’s agriculture sector has reached a level where it requires farm workers who can undertake farming operations in accordance with the emerging technological requirements and advanced agricultural practices.

Unfortunately, the technical and vocational education and training sector of Pakistan is not geared towards offering such skills training programmes that can equip farm workers with the required knowledge and skills.

Currently, our training institutes produce field assistants for supervisory jobs, while they also offer dozens of short-duration skills training programmes aimed at particular business ventures like tunnel farming, repair and maintenance of farm machinery, beekeeping, etc.

These are primarily designed for self-employment rather than wage employment. The contents, skills, and values imparted by such programmes are not aligned with the emerging technical skills required by millions of our agriculture and horticulture farms to combat the various challenges posed by technological advancement and climate change.

Now, more than ever, Pakistan needs a paradigm shift in skilling the workforce if we want a more productive, competitive and sustainable agriculture sector. Another benefit Pakistan can reap from skilling farm workers is their export to countries anticipating labour shortages in their farming sector. In the past, several countries across the world recruited foreign farm workers in great numbers to meet such labour shortages.

Khalid Wattoo is a farmer and a development professional.
Sara Mehmood is a researcher in agriculture and environmental sciences.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, February 13th, 2023