But what about agriculture?

It is great news to hear about the $200 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation towards Pakistan’s biggest poverty alleviation project called ‘Ehsaas’. But looking at the Ehsaas project I was disappointed to not see any agriculture development projects. I was even perplexed about why the head of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr Bill Gates himself did not highlight the importance of agriculture sector improvements for poverty reduction. This is because all the research in developed nations has highlighted one main fact: poverty is reduced by increase in food production. And if we look at Pakistan the farm output here is one-third of the output of farms in developed nations. Thus by concentrating on improving the agriculture sector and increasing farm output through use of new equipment we can reduce poverty in Pakistan much quicker.

Once we overcome this low-hanging fruit, pun intended, we can work on improving food security by developing the food processing and storage sector. Since 40 percent of Pakistan’s population are involved in the agriculture sector, such measures will benefit the most number of people. Plus the equipment and training grant programme can be an opportunity to bring the agriculture sector under the tax net as all grant seeking farmers would get grants after registering for tax. Another important fact is that with increasing food production, job creation and innovation also increase in that area. Because poor farmers with low production cannot hire help and have to rely on family members for farm work. But once the production of farm doubles, then the farmer can hire help, while his children can pursue education, business, research or the arts. Therefore improving Pakistan’s farms output can improve our country’s economy in many ways, helping reduce poverty much quicker.

Engr Shahryar Khan Baseer

Peshawar