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Ailing Pak agriculture needs new approach

Agriculture is the largest income and employment-generating sector of Pakistan’s economy. Its about two-thirds population lives in rural areas and directly or indirectly depend on agriculture for their livelihood. The sector provides raw materials to the industrial sector and is an important source of demand for its products. The share of agriculture in the country’s GDP has though declined overtime as a result of ongoing process of structural adjustment, its performance still have a major impact on the overall performance of the economy because of its linkages with the rest of the economy. Therefore, a higher and sustained growth in agricultural production is imperative for a rapid development of the economy and poverty reduction in the country. It is widely maintained that the potential for allocating more land and water resources to agricultural production is limited in Pakistan. Moreover, use of inputs like fertilizers and pesticides cannot be increased beyond certain limits and also because of national health and environmental concerns. Therefore, the country would have to depend more heavily on technological change and improvement of technical efficiency for the desired rapid agricultural growth. This change requires rigorous research and development projects in the country. The technical efficiency with which new technology is adopted and used more rationally is affected by the flow of information, better infrastructure, availability of funds and quality inputs, and farmers’ managerial capabilities. In Pakistan, productivity in various sub-sectors of agriculture continues to be rather low relative to the developed and many developing countries with similar resource base. Agriculturists argue that Pakistan’s economy would be more and more integrated into the world economy and it would become increasingly difficult for the agriculture sector to compete in the world market unless higher growth in agricultural productivity is ensured on sustainable basis. While R&D activities are absolutely important in securing the required per acre yield, these alone cannot be expected to achieve this goal unless this is supported by favourable policy instruments, human resources development, necessary physical and institutional infrastructure. The development of research and the transformation of that research in to applicable actions are too different courses and much more difficult to follow. Presently, the government is facing a critical question as how to rejuvenate the agriculture research institutions and make them viable. Pakistan finds its economic and agriculture survival in the sustained research and adoption of latest technology. The idea is quite viable and can be practiced only when all the efforts of stakeholders are pooled up and a reformed policy is adopted.http://www.technologytimes.pk/mag/2011/march11/issue01/ed_tweet.php