Jang Economic Session: Experts call for prioritising agriculture in budget

LAHORE: Agriculture should be put on the fourth priority in the forthcoming budget after the health, education and employment generation as it ensures food security and national security.

These views were expressed by the experts in Jang Economic Session on "What should be Agriculture Economy Priorities in Budget 2018-19." The discussants were Dr Ahmed Saleem, Qayaum Nizami, Abadur Rehman, Rukhsana Zafar and Farhanaz Naqvi while the event was hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.

Dr Ahmed Saleem said agriculture should be top priority as hungry could not progress so agriculture issues like construction of dams, protection of agriculture lands, exports of agricultural produce and policies should be focused. He said the lesser importance to the agriculture sector in five-year plans declined its progress. He called for increasing resources for research on fertilisers, seeds and climate change. He said forestation was reduced by 36 percent.

Qayaum Nizami said the agriculture sector contributed 24 percent to GDP, 40 percent to employment and substantially to the foreign exchange earnings, but, unfortunately, it was ignored. The national leaders' priorities are political interests instead of national interests which was affecting the villages, he said. He said livestock and agriculture had good prospects of progress with good governance and political will. He called for revisiting existing economic model for agriculture growth.

Abadur Rehman said that food-secure country never had security issue and Pakistan had surplus food and fruits, but, the country was unable to tap export potential. He said agriculture played a vital role in every sector's growth but it had never been priority of the government due to weak pressure groups of the sector. He said allocation of resources for the selected cities was injustice. He called for improving the quality of agricultural produce to increase its exports. He the livestock sector should be protected by banning import of powder milk. He asked the government to focus mega projects in small districts and implement the agriculture package in letter and spirit.

Rukhsana Zafar said that prioritising agriculture would benefit the economy while land management was the biggest issue of Pakistan due to which major landholdings remained unproductive. She said model farming could help agriculture growth and reduce unemployment.

Farhanaz Naqvi said agriculture was ignored in budget despite having 25 percent share in GDP and 50 percent in employment. Rural progress is not witnessed anywhere due ignored agriculture sector, he added. She suggested improving rural infrastructure to control urban migration. She called for focusing water issues to resolve agriculture sector's issue. She said literacy rate in rural women was zero percent which needed to be focused in the next budget.