GROWTH in the agriculture sector needs to be sustainable for a better performance. Sindh seems to be inching towards achieving goals for sustainability in the farm sector. However, the process remains slow even after the devolution of power to provinces under the 18th Amendment.

Sindh’s agriculture policy, which aims to achieve a growth rate of four per cent, realises this aspect by conceding that the “agriculture sector in Sindh, including livestock and fisheries, has not performed to its potential”.

Considering the farm sector’s importance for the economy, even the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) tend to focus on the agriculture sector. While two SDGs relating to poverty and climate action are connected with farm sector indirectly, SDG-3 directly addresses issues pertaining to agriculture.

SDG-3 calls for promoting sustainable agriculture. Its four targets underscore the need for an “increased investment in agriculture research and extension services to enhance agriculture productivity”, “double agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers”, “implement resilient agricultural practices”, and “maintain the genetic diversity of seeds”.

The goals can be achieved by providing a well-defined mechanism amid strong institutional oversight and regulatory framework to ensure better per-acre productivity within available water resources. Water availability being essential input of small farmers often gets undermined due to inter-provincial water issues or internal mismanagement in distributing available flows.

PPP mainly gets its electoral strength from rural population that is linked with the agriculture sector. But many of its promises related to the sector remain largely on paper

Pakistan Peoples Party mainly gets its electoral strength from rural population that is linked with the agricultural sector. PPP is in power for over 11 years (2008-2019) in Sindh and has been coming up with ambitious agriculture programmes in last three election manifestos.

But commitments like “improving productivity”, “special programmes for farmers to reduce risks faced by them”, “announce an agriculture policy at beginning of every year” and “fixing support price of wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton” made in the 2008 and 2013 manifestos remain largely on paper.

Except for wheat, farmers have been facing difficulties when it comes to paddy and cotton support prices. They are exploited by rice millers and cotton ginners.

The sugarcane sector has also been a total mess in the outgoing decade as far as sugarcane’s price fixing and payment by millers are concerned. Farmers believe the government sided with wealth and influential millers by amending the relevant act.

PPP has talked about a Zarai Inqilab strategy in its 2018 manifesto under which it aims to “overhaul of price support system”. It still has three and a half years to implement the strategy.

The price support system matters a lot, especially for small farmers. Farmers’ economy, especially small and medium farmers, revolves around returns they get from one crop before investing the same in the next one. Amid lack of agriculture credit disbursements, farmers turn to private lenders, who dot Sindh’s rural parts to offer loan to farmers on higher markup rates.

After having formed the federal government in 2008, PPP had substantially increased the wheat support price from Rs650 to Rs900 per 40kg as an incentive to growers. Afterwards, prices of no major crop were fixed as promised, except for the indicative price of sugarcane, which is a statutory requirement.

Declining crop yields are a disturbing phenomenon. The non-availability of certified and quality seed for paddy or cotton crops remains a matter of concern. It left farmers at the mercy of seed suppliers in retail markets, which are flooded with adulterated or mixture of seeds. Growers heavily rely on hybrid seeds, as indigenous seed takes a backseat owing to increasing cost of business.

According to veteran paddy grower Gada Hussain Mahesar from Larkana, hybrid seeds are cultivated in 75pc of total Sindh’s paddy acreage. He says this trend is not positive and the government is not intervening to address this issue, as seed suppliers are hoodwinking paddy growers in the name of imported seeds.

Rice is an exportable commodity and exporters want to double exports in coming years, but they want farmers to adopt better harvest practices for sustainable growth in crop.

In terms of cotton, the yields are below the desired levels. Having achieved 4.2 million cotton bales production in 2009, Sindh is unable to hit the mark again. Genetically modified Bt cotton became a household name for cotton growers until in the recent past, but it has now lost vigour and has become susceptible to pest attacks.

But every cloud has a silver lining and there is a brighter side of story. Having faced disasters of super floods in 2010 and torrential rains in 2011 that caused widespread damages to crops and infrastructure, the agriculture sector has shown resilience.

On the other hand, the Sindh government has come up with its first-ever agriculture policy, as a requirement of World Bank-funded Sindh Agriculture Growth Project, last year. The government is working on a water policy and it approved Sindh Women Agriculture Act 2019 to ensure empowerment of women who are essential component of agriculture and livestock sectors.

Through a couple of World Bank-funded projects, Sindh is achieving lining of watercourses and promoting sprinkler and drip irrigation. Sindh is also joining Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Rs309 billion Agriculture Emergency Programme, though the process remains slow as compared to other provinces.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, December 30th, 2019