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Govt must disburse massive allocations for agriculture

By our correspondents
May 24, 2016

ISLAMABAD: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Regional Standing Committee Chairman Ahmad Jawad has said that farmers are the engine of growth for the agro-based economies like Pakistan and those countries who invested on their farmers actually invested for its own to increase the GDP growth.

For the first time in decades, the output in agriculture sector, the backbone of the economy, contracted in the outgoing fiscal year, instead of showing growth, he said.

Talking to newsmen, Jawad said that the federal and provincial governments may disburse massive budget allocations for the agriculture sector in their coming budgets in true spirit, so that farmers of this country may contribute their due share instead of protesting every day on roads.

However, in the last three budgets no concrete allocations were made, which
may help reduce the post-harvest losses and increase exports.

"Interestingly, we had the money in Public Sector Development Progarmme to support Afghanistan, but we don’t have a concrete allocation for the agriculture, which is unfortunate, as in the last three years, the government allocated around Rs9,000 million against the head of Grant “for the reconstruction of Afghanistan”, he said.

He said, “We need to understand that economic renaissance in Pakistan is totally dependent on agriculture growth and as such Pakistan urgently needs an agricultural infrastructure to improve the balance of trade and put the economy back on the track.”

In this regard, the Finance Ministry may allocate at least Rs15 billion to this sector in the upcoming budget through PSDP to establish required agriculture infrastructure and give due subsidy interims of fertiliser, pesticides and in diesel to make farmers produce competitive.

"Currently, our agriculture sector faces huge post-harvest losses of 40 percent as compared to the global benchmark." Pakistan’s sugarcane yield is 40 percent lower against the global benchmarks; wheat yield is 20 percent lower, adversely affecting the farmers’ earning capability.

However, exports of Pakistani dates, if properly processed and packaged, could fetch between $200 and $240 million per annum, Jawad said.

“If we talk about exports, Pakistan horticulture sector is contributing only around 0.3 percent in the global exports due to the lack of infrastructure and research issues. 

"On the other hand, we produced more than 250 varieties of dates every year, but our exports are meager," he said. “Only India imports Rs2 billion in dry form almost every year.”

Similarly, only 90,714 tons of mangoes were exported in the last year against a normal target of 150,000 tons. “Our mango exports could exceed to as much as $100 million,” he added.

Balochistan annually produces more than a million tons of various varieties of fruits: 90 percent of them grapes, cherry, and almonds; 60 percent peach, pomegranate, and apricot; and 34 percent apples.

The province is the fifth largest producer of dates with an estimated production volume of 583,000 tons but, again, its exports are suffering because of non-availability of infrastructure. 

The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry Standing Committee Chairman urged the finance ministry to facilitate the country agriculture sector in the coming budget through Ministry of National Food & Security and Public Sector Development Progarmme (PSDP) and give the same importance as government provided to CPEC.