REINVIGORATING agriculture must be a top priority for the new government that came to power with promises of bringing about an agricultural revolution.

For a country mostly dependent on agriculture, the sector’s share in the economy has seen a steady decline, without being compensated by industrial growth-led job-creation. Instead the services sector — which is not employment intensive — has become the largest contributor to the country’s GDP.

Since accelerating industrial growth to the point where it creates mass scale jobs while keeping productivity and global competitiveness high is not an easy task, the only solution lies in making agriculture more productive.

Keeping this in mind, the PTI government has lined up huge foreign investment in agriculture, officials of the ruling party claim. They are counting on promised funds and technical cooperation from China, Indonesia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the US.

The PTI led governments in the federation, Punjab and KP will have to strike a smart trade-off between the party’s electoral promises on agriculture and on-ground realities

When the Saudi delegation visits Pakistan in early October, Pakistan is expecting to sign investment deals in agriculture along with those in energy and trade, these officials say.

But foreign investment alone cannot help overcome the impediments to growth and its sustainable expansion in targeted areas.

Officials of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research say provinces and the federation need to build a consensus on priority areas of development in agriculture. “Job creation, higher food exports, import substitution, reduced pressure on water resources and environment are some of the main objectives that are very important for the federal government.”

Alternatively, for the provinces the impact of the expected changes in the provincial politico-economic landscape, consistency in policies and their benefit to provinces is what matters more, along with the support the federal government can provide for pursuing agricultural development and provincial priorities, say officials of both Sindh and Punjab’s agriculture departments.

The PTI led governments in the federation, Punjab and KP will have to strike a smart trade-off between the party’s electoral promises on agriculture and on-ground realities.

Before coming to power, the PTI promised to (1) initiate institutional agricultural reforms (2) kick-start agriculture-based rural industrialisation (3) set up a small farmer support fund (4) ensure access to markets (5) accelerate supply of seeds and fertilisers (6) provide solar and wind-powered small tubewells to farmers and (7) guarantee jobs for the rural youth.

PTI officials used to claim they had a plan to make these things happen. Now that the party’s government has settled in, one hopes that after the completion of its first 100 days it will tell the nation what it has so far done to ensure implementation of these lofty goals.

Prime Minister Imran Khan in his first meeting of the Council of Common Interest on September 24 took up just one issue directly related to agriculture: water shortage in Sindh and Balochistan. He promised to make water distribution more judicious among provinces. If that promise materialises a great deal of agricultural woe can be minimised.

Whereas the PTI government’s focus on building dams deserves appreciation, one must acknowledge the fact that in the short run judicious water distribution among the provinces, strict check on water theft within provincial limits and economisation of water use in agriculture are three important steps that can help the sector grow faster. This requires harmony among and between the provinces and the federation.

Next to water come agricultural inputs.

The recent increase in gas prices is sure to make fertilisers costlier. The price of fertilisers has already been on the rise due to several upward revisions by manufacturers in the past three months.

While presenting the revised budget for FY19, Finance Minister Asad Umar announced a Rs7 billion subsidy for stabilising urea fertiliser prices but farmers’ lobby groups say this is too little and that the government should have introduced some measures to make imported seeds cheaper or announced incentives for local seed manufacturers.

The revised budget does not contain any other incentive for the agriculture sector.

A sliding rupee has added to the cost of imported seeds and the absence of incentives for local seed manufacturers makes it difficult for them to keep prices from rising amidst general inflationary pressures in the local economy.

The seed manufacturing sector has shown promising signs with local companies claiming a larger market share. One handy example is that of Faisalabad-based Yuksel Seed (Asia) company. — MA

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, October 1st, 2018