Hassam Durrani
Pakistan is an agricultural country and a large number of its population is connected with the agriculture profession in some way. In the last few decades, the agro-related industry has emerged in the country as well as with the growth of the population, the preferences of the people have changed. And people are also associated with private and Govt jobs and business, but as seen right now, agriculture is still the backbone of our country.
According to the recent survey in Pakistan, the per capita income of Pakistan has increased but the number of unemployed is also observed. In the countryside, there is no difference in the condition of the people Now the question arises either this is incompetence of the government or people are not willing to upgrade themselves. Why the growth in per capita income didn’t affect these areas or is the result of our efforts of the people why we are so far behind in the world? And also in the agriculture sector?
According to a 2016 World Bank survey, 60.78% of Pakistan’s population lives in rural areas. The percentage of women is about 52% of Pakistan’s total population, the fact that such a large population is in the villages indicates that Pakistan is an agricultural country. And most of its population depends on agriculture.
Agriculture has always been a key role in the total production of Pakistan. Pakistan’s agricultural-based commodities and fruits have their standards in quality and taste internationally. But in the last few years, the world where development has led to changes in many sectors of the country’s total productivity. There, in Pakistan too, the share of agricultural productivity began to decline, where at one time, the examples of a life of our villagers were given a time that was rich and prosperous. Now there is no difference in the fast-paced urban and rural life.
Until a few years ago, governments, whether political or non-political, somehow tried to take the agriculture sector together and set a subsidized price for many commodities so that the damage to crops caused by climate change could be recover, for an example, the price of wheat was fixed at Rs 1300 per 40Kg. also to help out those farmers who suffered a loss due to rain, flood or other climate changes just to facilitate them to compensate for the loss and help them for the next crops.
Three years ago rice and cotton crops were destroyed in Punjab due to the climatic conditions which caused a disaster for a large number of small farmers. All the affected farmers were awarded Rs.5 thousand per acre was given as compensation for the destroyed crop, which led to a large number of farmers who were suppressed under the loan, just to ease them for upcoming crops without any loan. While the recent government as came into power, the first thing they do was to take off any subsidy which was being provided to the farmers, with an immediate effect, as the previous government had subsidized urea and DAP fertilizers from farmers. Reduced an extremely high burden on inputs due to which, in the international market, the reduction in the cost of balancing the declining prices of agricultural commodities was very important to significantly improve the farmers’ plight due to the reduction in prices of fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, and diesel. But at the end of this subsidy, overnight prices of pesticides, diesel, seeds, and fertilizers have broken the back of farmers.
On the other hand, the government has banned all types of imports to reduce its import bill, which has resulted in the supply of improper quality seeds being supplied all over the country this year, and the government has not paid any attention to agricultural reforms, facilitating the mafia to take advantage of it. And brought the nastiest seeds of rice, corn, and cotton in the market. The disadvantage is that the rice crop has been destroyed in Lahore and its surrounding areas because the rice seeds were not worth it to produce quality. The plants are not able to produce the required amount of seeds.
Similarly, when it comes to the cotton crop, its conditions are not different. The cotton crop was under the attack of the virus from the last two years, and this year they supplied a virus containing seed into the market which not only reduced the production of cotton but also demolishes the quality. According to a report, ginning mills across Pakistan not only closed ahead of their due time but due to the fall in production and fall in quality, not only the farmers but also the mill owners are suffering a loss. Due to these problems labor working in the agricultural sector and its adjoining industries have become unemployed, but the government has no concern about it.
And if this continues then the whole Pakistan and especially Punjab, which was once famous around the world for agricultural production, will become lore.
