‘Govt must announce relief for sugarcane, wheat farmers’

KARACHI: The stakeholders in the horticulture and agriculture sector have urged the federal government to provide relief for sugarcane and wheat growers in the Kissan package announced by the prime minister.
In a statement, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Standing Committee on Horticulture and Agriculture Produce Chairman Ahmad Jawad said after the reduction of international prices, the sugarcane and wheat farmers also need attention due to the high input cost. “I don’t think that in the upcoming crop of sugarcane in Sindh, there will be any good price offers by the sugar millers,” he said.
Pakistan has substantial potential in agriculture if the government gives subsidy, which will return to the government with profit. “In the current scenario, agriculture still makes an optimum contribution in the export target,” Jawad said. The country’s exports have been in trouble in the recent years, more so in the textile sector, but overall exports have suffered as well. Policymakers are increasingly focusing on the non-traditional export segments that hold promise.
Experts contend that the horticulture sector has immense potential to bring as much as $6 to $7 billion in export proceeds over the next ten years. However, this would only happen with proper infrastructure and a high level of research and development through effective policy. At the moment, Pakistan’s share in global horticulture exports is just 0.3 percent. Similarly, the fruit sector and more specifically dates offer mentionable upside for exports.
Pakistan is ranked fifth, closely following Iran as the largest date producer globally. Dates are the most important Middle Eastern fruit crop, with production reaching 7.5 million metric tons in 2014. In Pakistan, this fruit is the third largest crop after mango and citrus.
Date plantations are spread across 92,300 hectares across all four provinces in Pakistan. The annual production is an estimated at 550,000 to 650,000 metric tons (MT), which Sindh contributing around 50 percent of which 90 percent comes from the date palms of Khairpur. Pakistan falls in such an agro-ecological region where dates can grow on a large scale with superior quality.
Over the years, Pakistan has gained significant strength with regards to dried dates. India and Bangladesh are the two largest importers of Pakistani dry dates. According to USAID, date fruit industry suffers inferior quality issues, lack of storage facilities and non-availability of quality packing, poor transportation facilities, and high freight charges.
Jawad said, “We need to understand that the busy lifestyle and stressful work culture has pushed up the consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Consequently, the sector is flourishing and opening up new prospects of employment and research, thereby introducing a new dimension into the agriculture sector across the world. As a matter of fact, horticulture is currently considered a separate industry.”
If we talk about the figures, global fruit production in 2013 was estimated at 676.9 million tonnes as against an estimated 656.9 million tonnes in 2012.
The leading fruit producing countries in the world in 2013 were China, India, Brazil, the US, and Indonesia. China and India also made it to the top-10 vegetable producing countries of the world in the same year.