One way for Pakistan to pull out of its present economic difficulties is to think differently about economic development, to give up on the old ways of promoting growth and adopt a strategy that is more in keeping with modern times.

If this approach were to be followed, agriculture will be the most affected sector.

It could also become the most dynamic part of the economy, helping to accelerate the rate of GDP growth, reduce the incidence of poverty and narrow the income and wealth inequalities among different segments of the population and different regions of the country.

Two significant changes have occurred in the sector of agriculture in the last few years and both present Pakistan with amazingly rich opportunities. The first is the paradigm shift in the prices of agriculture products.

For the first time since development economics came to be treated as a separate discipline, terms of trade have moved decisively in favour of agriculture. This is indicated in the accompanying table and graph that show the unrelenting increase in the index of food prices maintained by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization, the FAO. The index has increased by nearly 60 per cent in the last 18 months.

The trade-off between manufactured products and the produce of land has moved in favour of the latter. Students of development economics will recall that in the early ’fifties, when the discipline was in its formative stage, several influential thinkers, in particular Raul Prebisch from Latin America, believed that the economic system of production dominated by the industrialised countries was tilted against the developing world.

It was organised in a way that the prices of the commodities produced by the developing countries would always remain low relative to the prices of manufactured products produced by rich countries. The only way to escape from this trap was for the low income countries to industrialise and reduce their dependence on the industrial countries.This thinking was at the heart of the earlier development plans that guided policymaking in many developing countries, including Pakistan. There were also political reasons why policymakers neglected the development of agriculture and concentrated their attention on industrialising the country. In the immediate post-independence period, policymaking was in the hands of the urban elite which showed an urban bias in managing economic development. India also forced Pakistan to industrialise quickly by halting all trade in 1949 thus depriving the struggling citizens of the new country of basic manufactures they needed.

Pakistan is now semi-industrialised, having pursued for decades an import substitution policy. This involved protecting what economists call “infant industries”. Tariffs on imports were kept high, taxes were relatively low, and the state stepped in whenever some parts of the industrial sector faced difficulties. This kind of coddling by the state did not produce an efficient industrial sector that could compete in the international market place. One consequence of this was very poor performance in exports.

The country is paying the price for this industrial policy as exports remain stagnant while imports continue to increase. One way out of this difficulty is to build agriculture as an export oriented sector.

The recent changes in the terms of trade have brought about a new set of opportunities for the developing world. This change will last for the simple reason that the structure of demand and the refashioning of the system of industrial production have moved in new directions so that a given quantity of agricultural produce will buy a larger quantity of industrial output. This puts at great advantage countries such has Pakistan that have not realised the full potential of the sector of agriculture.

The second major change affecting agriculture is taking place right in Pakistan’s neighbourhood. It is the product of the rapidly growing demand for agricultural products in the oil producing and exporting countries of the Middle East. The transfer of incomes to the oil exporting countries that has resulted because of the catapulting in the price of oil has changed the structure of domestic demand in these countries.

It has, in particular, increased the demand for high value added agricultural products – animal products, exotic fruits, vegetables, flowers and many types of processed foods. Some of these oil rich countries are looking for ways to ensure secure sources of supply of these important items for domestic consumption.

The problems they face are well illustrated by a recent analysis by two knowledgeable persons about the Middle East. “Saudi Arabia has no permanent rivers and lakes. Rainfall is low and unreliable. Cereals can be cultivated only through expensive projects that deplete underground reservoirs. Dairy cattle must be cooled with fans and machines that spray them with water mists. This is not, in short, a nation that would normally be associated with large scale agriculture,” write Javier Blas and Andrew England in the Financial Times.

The same description applies to Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and UAE. It is not surprising that these countries are looking to invest in countries that have the potential to export agricultural and livestock products.

Several Middle Eastern countries are interested in acquiring land which they can use for producing for their domestic markets. During a recent tour of Central Asia, Khalifa bin Zayed, the UAE president, underscored the need for his country to secure supplies for agricultural products. He had gone to the area, attracted by the regions empty land.

“The UAE is looking at implementing some agricultural projects in Kazakhstan as part of its efforts to develop stable food supply sources for its needs,” he said. Some countries have made tentative moves in Pakistan. Qatar is reported to be interested in setting up a large animal farm in the Punjab for importing meat and dairy products. But these are ad hoc developments which need to be channelised in a way that the country’s agricultural sector benefits broadly.

The Pakistani state needs to get formally involved to invite these kinds of investments. How could this be done and in what way Pakistan could take advantage of this opportunity as well as the changes in the terms of trade? One would suggest that the initiative should come from the provincial governments and should be directed at developing a partnership between the private capital and the state.

One approach would be to establish agriculture and livestock production and export corporations, one for each of the four provinces. Since, the four provinces are differently endowed they will specialise in the production of different products. These should be joint enterprises with the provincial governments and the Middle Eastern investors as the owners. They should be listed in the Pakistani as well as the Middle Eastern capital markets. They should be given some of the land the government owns as equity with capital for developing the land coming from the partners in the Middle East.

This type of approach would bring several benefits to Pakistan. It would bring in new form of foreign direct investment into the country. It will help to commercialise agriculture. It will increase exports by developing new lines of products. It will have multiplier effects by introducing other farmers to new technologies and markets. And, it will help to increase the country’s export earnings.

Pakistan has lost many opportunities in the past to develop its economy by encouraging exports. Consequen-tly, the country remains dependent on foreign capital to pay for the growing trade deficit. This is not a sustainable strategy. Now, that the increase in the price of commodities and the demand for agricultural and livestock products in the Middle East (also China, which is making investments in agriculture in the countries with potential in that sector) has presented the country with another opportunity to expand exports, it must move forward. This opportunity should not be lost.