Agriculture plan

Pakistan is an agricultural country and agriculture is the backbone of the country’s economy. According to the Economic Survey 2018-19, the agriculture sector provides livelihood for almost two out of every five Pakistanis. The sector grew by only 0.85 percent in 2018-19 which should ring alarm bells for the government. This poor performance of the sector is much lower than the target of 3.8 percent and growth of 3.94 percent in the last fiscal year. However, this sector still has vast capacity as it contributes 18.5 percent to the country’s GDP, and provides 38.5 percent jobs.

Budget 2019-20 has proposed a number of measures to give a boost to the agriculture sector; this also includes per unit subsidized electricity and subsidized fertilizers. However, according to media reports, several parliamentarians including treasury members and other stakeholders have protested against Budget 2019-20 for ignoring most of the recommendations given by the high-powered parliamentary committee on agriculture. In view of the above, there is a strong need to fix minimum support price for major crops. The Minimum Support Price mechanism should be enforced in letter and spirit. Also, the tariff on electricity supplied for agriculture purpose should be reduced and the Fuel Price Adjustment should be abolished. Regulatory duty should be imposed on import of competing agriculture products of Pakistan and no tax should be imposed on the import of pesticides and fertilizers.

Khan Faraz

Peshawar