Poor seeds cost Pakistan $1bn annually: PAC

KARACHI: Pakistan loses a billion dollars annually due to the use of poor seed and outdated methods for the three major crops, wheat, cotton and maize, an official of the Pakistan Agricultural Coalition (PAC) said on Monday.

PAC Strategy Advisor Kazim Saeed said that annual production of corn, wheat and rice was worth $12 billion, of which $1 billion a year is lost due to supply chain and storage problems. “PAC believes that Pakistan’s agriculture must become private sector-led, technology-driven, entrepreneurial and globally competitive,” he added.

Pakistan's first “Agri-Connections Event 2023” would be held on March 16, 2023 in Karachi, organised by the PAC. The event aims to connect Pakistan’s agriculture sector to the industry, finance, government, and the world.

This is the 1st edition of the PAC’s annual conference and exhibition in which different sessions will be held, including Pakistan’s agriculture and opportunities in the global economy; investment opportunities in agriculture; increasing growers’ profitability; sustainable agriculture and climate change; access to capital; maize for poultry, dairy (and exports?); investment for import substitution; reversing Pakistan’s trade deficit through agri-commodities; and tech and the future of agriculture.

PAC has been sponsored by Pakistan’s leading business groups for developing commercially scalable business models for growth in the country’s agriculture sector. Kazim said that PAC’s mission is to drive this transformation with concerted action from key stakeholders: growers, federal and provincial governments, the private sector (such as agri-businesses and industry), development partners, financial institutions, and academia and consumer groups.

Some of the flagship projects of PAC include establishment of Pakistan’s first electronic warehouse receipts regime. This regime is bringing financial access to farmers by collateralising commodities for loans, and also creating strong incentives for crop testing, grading, and standardisation, proper storage, reduction in post-harvest losses, and preservation of crop quality for exports.

Over three seasons, two billion rupees worth of warehouse receipts have been issued so far. PAC had also convinced USAID to fund a feasibility study on grain storages to attract investment in this important segment of the agri-economy.

The study was conducted in August-December 2020 by multiple experts and was led by PAC’s Kazim Saeed. The study’s recommendations and financial model are being actively used to support advocacy work for the regime and to convince agri-sector stakeholders to invest in storages.

PAC has also worked with the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) to develop and implement a multi-year programme for increasing Pakistan’s rice exports by introducing mechanisation in rice cultivation. The aims of the project include improving farm productivity, cutting post-harvest losses (15-20 percent) and also significantly increasing rice exports over the next few years.