KARACHI: Sindh’s Agriculture Minister Sardar M Bux Khan Mahar said that we must take bold steps to modernise, improve productivity and create a more resilient agricultural sector, a statement said on Thursday.
He was speaking at the two-day Pakistan Agriculture Coalition conference and expo. He added that agricultural economies across the world are working on improving their agri-supply chains by making them more efficient, innovative and enterprising.
“The challenges such as post-harvest losses (average 40 per cent loss of horticulture crops), limited access to modern storage facilities, and climate change (major biblical level floods in the last 15 years in Sindh) remain significant hurdles to the development of our agriculture sector,” said the minister.
Country Representative of United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization Florence Rolle said that the private sector can shape the future of the market-led agri market in Pakistan. “There is a big gap between farmers and investors. Collaboration is not happening in Pakistan as it is happening in other countries,” said Florence.
Dr Irfan Ali gave a presentation on how Pakistan’s farmers can benefit from carbon credits. “Agriculture contributes the most to greenhouse gases, especially from the livestock’s methane, fertiliser from nitrous oxide, deforestation and use of energy in agriculture and is contributing 50 per cent,” he said.
Dr Ali added that the impact of GHG emissions is reduced productivity, water stress, soil erosion and fertility loss, and increased risk of food insecurity, “therefore, we need to increase the resilience of the agriculture sector and should introduce and adopt sustainable practices”.
Gediz Kaya, CEO of GAIA Climate (Turkey), said that carbon credits are vital for climate mitigation investments, but there is less understanding in Pakistan about carbon credits. “It is vital for investments in carbon technologies in
order to be bankable for investors and also vital for the agriculture sector, including SME sectors. It is very important for a country like Pakistan,” said Gediz. Director of Soorty Enterprises Asad Soorty said that one tonne of carbon credit sells for $5-20, so it is an additional income for farmers.
“Pakistani farmers burn crop waste, which increases our emissions. Instead, we can create bio-char, slow combustion through brick kiln and in the end it becomes a black substance called bio-char, almost like char instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.
“It locks in the carbon into itself, you can then use it on your fields to cover your crops, and it increases the carbon in the crop, which increases its soil content and crop quality. Carbon in the air is bad, but on the field its good,” said Asad.
Earlier, the first session of the day was about how Pakistan can learn from Hungary with support from the Embassy of Hungary in which Technical Director of Inteq Balint Pongracz mentioned that there are many similarities between Hungary and Pakistan’s agriculture sectors.
Secretary of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) Sheryar Taj while giving a presentation revealed that the authority is organising 27 exhibitions this year under its annual business plan to increase the export potential of the country’s agriculture sector.
“Last year, Pakistan’s exports were recorded over $8 billion, with the share of goods as over 26 per cent while from the agri sector the share of rice was more than 50 per cent,” said Taj.