KARACHI: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on Wednesday advised the government to take measures to bring cost of agriculture production down instead of doling out subsidies and announcing support prices.
The FPCCI said cost of production should be reduced through direct support to farmers in purchase of machinery, fertilisers, pesticides, and other inputs, while infrastructure should be developed to ensure farm-to-market access.
The FPCCI said the government should formulate sustainable agriculture policy to ensure food security in the country.
“Pakistan’s food security is dependent on production of essential crops that are providing basic food and input for industrial production,” Anjum Nisar, president of the FPCCI said in a statement. “However, the performance of agriculture sector presently does not guarantee self-sufficiency.”
FPCCI said negligence of agriculture could lead the country towards severe food security and shortage of basic and essential food items would increase inflation. Seed is the basic input for agriculture sector and has an imperative role in enhancing agriculture productivity. The world has now focused on the use of certified seed for enhancing agriculture productivity owning to its better profitability coupled with the application of internationally acceptable quality parameters. Technology and farm mechanisation can accelerate the growth of agriculture sector, according to the FPCCI. Population of Pakistan has reached 222.1 million with growth rate of 1.9 and further expansion is expected in near future despite 11.5 percent increase in cultivated land along with 187 percent increase in production of wheat, 171 percent in cotton production and 162 percent increase in sugarcane production during the last 45 years.
The country was producing 26.7 million tons of wheat on 9.2 million hectors few years back. Both yield and area of production declined to 24 million tons and area of production was reduced to 8.8 million hectors.
Cotton production dropped to 8.5 million bales from 13.9 million bales. Area of production shrank to 2.5 million hectors.
Cotton yield is 618 kilogram per hector. India is producing 29.4 million cotton bales. China is producing 27.5 million bales with 1,748 kg per hector yield, USA 19.5 million bales with 924 kg/hector, Brazil 12 million bales with 1,686 kg/hector. Sugarcane production was recorded at 75.5 million tons on 1.2 million hectors. Its production and area of cultivation was down to 66.8 million tons. Rice has seen showing increasing trend both in production and area of cultivation. 7.4 million tons of rice on 3 million hectors was produced.
In July-March, 2.7 million tons of edible oil of Rs321.5 billion were imported. Local production of edible oil during the same period was estimated at 500,000 tons.
Cottonseed production decreased to 2.4 million tons from 2.5 million tons while cottonseed oil production declined to 289 million tons during 2019/20 from 305 million tons in the previous years.