Two of the major political parties have come up with their manifestos for the 2018 election. Both documents make a number of commitments to the farming community.

Agriculture is a now devolved subject. Pro­vin­cial governments oversee this sector after the 18th Amendment. There is a greater need for them to address basic issues that confront farmers.

For small and medium-size farmers, growth in the agriculture sector is directly linked with strong institutional oversight, which is currently missing. The federal and provincial governments avoid taking initiatives to ensure input cost control and adequate commodity prices.

The PML-N also makes many promises in its 2018 manifesto and reminds the electorate about the initiatives it took in its last term to serve the farming community.

The PPP has devoted a large part of its manifesto to the agriculture sector and related subjects like water and livestock. It discusses sectoral issues in greater detail this time around than in its 2013 manifesto.

The PPP manifesto talks about an agricultural revolution and seeks to address the issue of support prices. It aims to overhaul the entire support price system and improve grain storage by making the required investment. The party made a similar commitment in its 2013 manifesto when it pledged to announce support prices for the four major crops: sugarcane, wheat, rice and cotton.

But it could not honour its commitment. On the contrary, farmers struggled to get the indicative price for the sugarcane crop fixed by the PPP government. The row over the sugarcane price for the 2017-18 season continues to date as the apex court has yet to adjudicate on it. The Sindh government appeared to be taking sides with sugar mill owners.

The PPP says it will extend the price support system beyond the wheat crop to achieve higher diversification in the country’s crop portfolio. It will provide farmers in non-irrigated areas with an opportunity to benefit from this mechanism for the first time. The PPP intends to complement it with an innovative crop insurance scheme. It also says that farmers will be allowed to store their produce in government-run storage facilities for onward sales at a later stage.

The PPP has come up with the idea of a Benazir Kisan Card, which promises to introduce crop insurance and ensure the provision of subsidised fertiliser and electricity for small farmers. It will be good if the party indeed overhauls the entire support price system to include a range of crops as well as the announcement of prices ahead of the sowing season.

According to Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) Vice President Mahmood Nawaz Shah said political parties make lofty commitments, but farmers end up getting nothing in the absence of an implementation plan.

As for depleting water resources, the PPP is targeting efficiency and conservation besides controlling water-logging and salinity, improving water quality management and augmenting supply by investing in new technology.

As far as subsidies and the conservation of groundwater supplies are concerned, the PPP made a pledge in 2013 too when it announced that it would “hold periodic consultations with all stakeholders to fund farm subsidies for the purpose of arresting water-logging and salinity and conserving groundwater supplies”. But nothing to this effect happened in last five years.

For the conservation of water, the PPP plans to focus on the lining of canals, rainwater harvesting, effective storage and irrigation system, including the promotion of drip irrigation.

Currently, two World Bank-funded projects – the Sindh Agriculture Growth Project and the Sindh Irrigated Agricultural Productivity and Enhancement Project – are being executed. These projects cover components like the lining of canals and the improvement in rice, chilli, onion and date crops. According to a safe estimate, Sindh has 45,000 watercourses. But not even 30 per cent of them are completely lined.

Mr Shah said the 2013 manifesto was never implemented. “Take the example of the PML-N. It says it has provided farmers with 7,000 laser levellers. Our counterparts in Punjab might have received them, but we have got none here in Sindh,” he said. However, he said he appreciates the fact that the PPP has decided to invest in storage facilities — something Sindh currently lacks.

The PML-N had announced a Rs341 billion Kissan Package under which subsidies at the rate of Rs5,000 per acre were to be provided to cotton and paddy growers before the local government election in 2015.

Provincial governments were supposed to share the 50pc cost of the subsidy. While Punjab-based farmers received the subsidy, their counterparts in Sindh could not get it as the provincial government did not pitch in its share.

Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) leader Nabi Bux Sathio appreciated the fact that the PML-N seeks to invest 1pc of gross domestic product in the agriculture sector. However, he said the PML-N and the PPP did not explain explicitly as to how they intend to reduce the cost of input to ensure affordable commodity prices. Growers remain at the mercy of buyers due to the missing institutional oversight, he added.

Both parties talk about access to farm credit. However, Sindh-based growers have had a bitter experience with agriculture credit. Mr Shah claimed that up to 80pc of agriculture credit is diverted to Punjab. Farmers want this disparity in credit disbursement to end forthwith, he added.

The PPP also failed to do anything tangible about research and development for seed improvement. There is overreliance on the hybrid variety of seed in the paddy crop and the BT variety of cotton. The plan listed in the 2013 manifesto about on-site, field-oriented research went nowhere.

One could only hope the two parties will honour their promises to their constituents this time around.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, July 9th, 2018