Blue economy: the source of economic recovery
Due to deficiencies in policy formulation, the country failed to develop the sector’s export potential
Despite its strong resource base, Pakistan’s agricultural sector has failed to show a sustained upward trend in the past few years.
Statistics released by the Pakistani Bureau of Statistics (PBS) show that the growth of the agricultural sector in the past six fiscal years is very chaotic-0.2% in fiscal year 2016, 2.2% in fiscal year 2017, 4.0% in fiscal year 2018, and 0.6 in fiscal year 2019 %, 2.67% in fiscal year 2019. 2.77% in fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 21.
The agricultural sector has provided employment opportunities for 38.5% of my country's labor force, while increasing the total GDP by 19.2%. Such an important economic sector obviously needs more attention from policymakers. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of policy focus on agriculture for many years. For example, if we look at the agricultural development budget, we will find that it is disappointingly low-9% of total development expenditure in FY21. Compare this low percentage with the 19.2% contribution of agriculture to GDP. Does it make any sense?
In Pakistan’s agriculture, livestock account for a huge share of 60.1%, followed by primary and secondary crops, accounting for 34.2%. Fisheries and forestry account for slightly more than 5% of the entire agricultural sector. All these sub-sectors have extraordinary export potential, especially in animal husbandry, crops and fisheries. However, due to flaws in policy formulation and poor implementation of policy measures, we have not been able to fully utilize this potential.
The reasons for slow agricultural growth and instability are both domestic and international. Major issues facing the country include traditional farming methods, uncertain irrigation, improper soil management, expensive fertilizers, pests and plant diseases, inability to obtain high-yielding genetically modified seeds, lack of credit facilities to purchase modern technologies, insufficient investment in agricultural research and training, and occasional locusts Assault.
In the international market, we are faced with product marketing and branding issues. We have been exporting unprocessed agricultural products such as grains for a long time, and we don't bother to focus on producing value-added products. World-class brands are still missing, even for non-branded agricultural products, the existing marketing infrastructure is also very poor. Therefore, our agricultural exports are still uncompetitive in the global market.
The reason why it is difficult for Pakistan to switch from grain exports to high value-added food exports is that the country’s private sector is unwilling to invest in modern technology. The output of major crops is still far below that of other countries. (For example, Pakistan’s wheat yield per hectare is 3 tons, which is only half of China’s 6 tons per hectare, and is significantly lower than Bangladesh’s 4 tons per hectare). In our crop sector, pre-harvest and post-harvest losses are still unsustainably high. According to a 2019 study by the Asian Development Bank, the post-harvest loss of perishable items such as fruits and vegetables is no less than 30-40%. The end result is that after an increase of approximately 2% to feed 220 million people, the exportable surplus of agricultural products is still very low. (The United Nations predicts that Pakistan’s population will grow by 1.95% in 2021).
Pakistan’s performance in livestock production is better than many countries, but animal productivity in this sector is still very low. As early as the 2018 Global Livestock Production Index, the index measures the growth of livestock related to a country’s population, ranking Pakistan at 25th place-two levels higher than Bangladesh (27th) and much higher than China (No. 27). 118 bits). Now, the ranking is not available. However, due to a variety of reasons, including the lack of access to standardized animal feeds and lack of veterinary services, animal productivity or milk and meat production per cow is still low. For example, this is why our total buffalo milk production grew at an average annual rate of 2.7% between 2015 and 2019, compared to 4.5% in India during the same period.
Insufficient agricultural financing is another major obstacle to agricultural production and export growth. Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) is mainly responsible for providing agricultural financing, but it appears to be less efficient in paying for the agricultural credit required. According to data from the National Bank of Pakistan, in FY21, it achieved approximately 75% of its credit payment target, which is higher than the 62.3% in FY20, but it is far from the ideal 100%.
Regardless of which party rules the country, most of the time the government attributes the slow and inconsistent growth of agriculture to climate change. This statement is correct to a certain extent. It is important to remember that climate change can also be used to improve crops and livestock?
Many things can be done to mitigate the impact of climate change on agriculture. These include developing extreme temperature-tolerant crops, planting pests and drought-resistant crops, accurate weather forecasts, water management and storage, and making full use of underutilized groundwater through the installation of independent photovoltaic (PV) pump tube well systems.
The author is a mechanical engineer, studying for a master's degree
Published in Express Tribune, November 22, 2021.
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