Agriculture, food security and poverty alleviation
The economic situation is leading to accelerating food inflation and trade gap 
because of increased imports, harming the productivity of the agriculture industry 
and in turn the prosperity of the rural population

By Chaudhry Kamran Naseer

Provision of sufficient, economically and physically accessible food to the general public should be the basic objective of government policies, as food security is requisite not only for a healthy population and an energetic labour force but for a stable economic growth as well. According to Jacques Diouf, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) “Food security is elemental for the decrease of poverty, the education of children and the health of the people, but also for lasting economic growth as it conditions the stability and security of the world / nations.”

Unfortunately growth indicators of the agriculture sector in our country are not satisfactory. According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan, growth performance of agriculture has been decreasing continuously from 6.5 per cent in 2004-2005 to 1.5 per cent in 2007-2008. This situation is leading to accelerating food inflation, trade gap escalation by extending imports, affecting adversely the productivity of agro-based industry, prosperity of rural population and economic growth as well.

Lack of research work, limited budgetary funds to agriculture sector, ignorance of rural areas while allocating resources and directing major infrastructure development projects, tedious loan disbursement procedure of the banking system etc are some factors affecting adversely agricultural growth, but the major one is low investment power of farmers.

Canal breaches, animals stolen from farms, absence of forecasting systems about climatic variations, lack of insurance facilities, decrepit market mechanism which works against farmers’ benefits, penurious road networks in rural areas, agro-based industries behavior in doing payments to farmers and pesticide poisoning results in great financial losses for farmers and retards their ability to invest in land and livestock, which results in low animal output and great downturn in per hectare yield.

Growing at 2.5 per cent per annum the population of our country is expected to reach double digits in next forty years. Further food inflation has slashed the purchasing power of majority of the population, which by reducing aggregate demand has affected shoddily the production sector of the economy and hence overall economic growth.

To meet food requirements for growing population, reducing inflation, overcoming the problem of low productivity, providing low cost and sufficient food to general public, exports multiplication, protecting farmer’s future who are the majority of rural community is essential, and for the development of economy a comprehensive attention is required to raise agricultural production putting agro-sector at front in policies especially focusing on increasing farmers’ power to invest by solving their problems.

Due to canal breaches crops on hundreds acres each year are destroyed. The walls of mostly canals are of mud. This week infrastructure results in canal breaches that cause a lot of water losses on one side and destruction of standing crops on the other. Due to lack of finance and passing of specific cultivation period it becomes very difficult for farmers to re-cultivate land after crop destruction incase of canal breaches. This results in heavy financial losses of farmers affecting the overall production. Similarly some times costly animals of farmers like Bulls, Buffalos, Cows, Sheep etc., are stolen from farms. Missing of only a single animal becomes a big loss for farmers as these animals are not only agro-supporter used for cultivation, transportation etc but provide net income in the form of milk and meat to farmers.

Both land and livestock output is highly sensitive to climatic variability. Sudden rain incase of freshly sprayed fields neutralise pesticides affects. Similarly, sometimes heavy snowfall causes disability or death of animals. Droughts, floods and severe storms negatively affect crop yields and livestock output. As mostly farmers do not have access to weather forecasting system they often remain unable to protect their crops and livestock from climatic extremes. Lack of insurance facilities for crops and livestock is another problem.

Farmers cannot store agro-products for a long period of time. Due to fear of spoilage and to reinvest for next season they have to sell their produces. But unfortunately market mechanism works against benefits of farmers. Until crops remain in farmers' hands its financial value remains low. At the end of each crop season, market players buy crops at low price giving net payment to farmers, and hoard these to control market supply and demand forces. By hoarding these produces for only two or three months, these hoarders sell produces at a very high rate. The recent rice season is the best example of this. This supports to fuel inflation and results in loss of cultivators.

Some agro based industries like sugar and textile use agro based raw materials. Due to poor road networks cost of transportation increases and it becomes very difficult for farmers to carry their produces from fields to markets / industries. While transporting these produces due to narrow and absence of paved roads sometimes loaded trucks and trolleys turtle before reaching to markets / industries, which not only causes a big loss to farmers but roads also remain blocked for many days. This situation also bends farmers to sell their produces in the fields to middlemen who work for their own profit. Moreover these agro based industries buy raw materials from farmers and do payments after one year like in the case of sugarcane. Due to this behavior, in the last season sugarcane cultivation remained below the targeted figure and now the country has to pay abundant dollars to import sugar.

Pesticide poisoning and mechanical injuries pose serious risks to farmer’s health. Farmers sometimes lost many days off work due to pesticide illness and mechanical injuries which results in ineffective farm management and ultimately low productivity.

With high incomes farmers can be able to invest more in land and livestock resulting in high yields of crops and animal output, which will help to attain the essential goal of food security necessary for eternal economic growth. But it will be possible only and only if these problems are solved. It will help to increase incomes and savings of farmers by reducing their unproductive expenditures and different types of financial losses. The following suggestions can help useful in this respect:

The walls of canals should be brick lined to block canal breaches. It will save water losses and crops destruction. To reduce animal theft, the government must improve the law and order situation in the country. Farmers should be provided with basic information about the weather with repeated broadcast/telecast so that they can take precautionary measures. For this it is necessary to provide electricity in those villages where it is still not provided. Crops and livestock must be provided with insurance lid.

Government should play its role by enforcing laws and making other required arrangements against hoarding, and to maintain a modern marketing system so that middlemen can be minimised. Further there is a dire need to ensure timely payments to growers by enforcing laws and making other required arrangements. Road networks are needed to expand in rural areas for direct assessment of farmers to markets and industries, and to reduce transportation cost.

To protect farmers from pesticides poisoning, there is a need to provide information to farmers about the importance of use of safety equipments like gloves, mask, proper dress and goggles etc, while handling different types of chemicals. Two way policies are needed to reduce mechanical injuries. Designs of agricultural machinery especially fodder cutter are needed to upgrade so that chance of human body damage can be minimised. Injuries can also be reduced by covering rotating parts of machines which is normally ignored. It is also necessary to improve farmer’s skills. Agricultural centres in the villages can play an important role in this respect.

Farmers are a central part of an agrarian society. They are considered to be the most crucial asset of the country and constitute a big segment of the rural community. Without improving their investment power, it is very difficult to achieve the desired goal of food security necessary for perennial economic growth. Government should take steps in this regard at the earliest.