By Shaukat Masood Zafar
30. The countries which previously followed development strategy based on industrialization alone soon realized that without an expanding agriculture sector, the urban labor force would not be able to buy food at reasonable prices, there would be no supply of raw materials for industries, and the majority of population living in rural areas would not have the purchasing power to buy goods produced by the industries. Now, even among those developed countries where manufacturing and the service sectors are considered to be the driving force of the economy, the agriculture sector is still prioritized to remain an important contributor, especially in the food production. The agriculture credit sector is contributing significantly to the growth of their economies. Most of the countries have set up their rural credit systems being run as state-owned statutory bodies headed by highly professional top management supervised by professional boards who are responsible to arrange, provide, supervise and co-ordinate credit for agricultural purposes. The idea for those state-owned entities is uniformly to embark on the maximum food production and to ensure the full realization of maximum economic and social benefits. During the instant year Paraguay, a small agricultural country has reached an unprecedented 14.5 per cent economic growth by adopting good management practices thus seeing a notable recovery of its economy by record cereal, soy and beef exports. On the contrary our country has handed over the whole system to non serious people to play with and enjoy, just as a reward to party loyal. It is a very sensitive sector needing concrete attention because 170 million people are wholly dependent on this sector. Political rewards can be given by some other way. But this sector requires to be supervised by purely professional people. Otherwise our rural finance system and ultimately the agricultural production will collapse.
This paper is just an outline. There are a number of other measures to strengthen the Bank, the agriculture base, and resultantly overall economic of the country. I will devise a complete working plan covering each and every aspect with justifications, costs, and legal requirements if the Government of Pakistan may so desire.
30. The countries which previously followed development strategy based on industrialization alone soon realized that without an expanding agriculture sector, the urban labor force would not be able to buy food at reasonable prices, there would be no supply of raw materials for industries, and the majority of population living in rural areas would not have the purchasing power to buy goods produced by the industries. Now, even among those developed countries where manufacturing and the service sectors are considered to be the driving force of the economy, the agriculture sector is still prioritized to remain an important contributor, especially in the food production. The agriculture credit sector is contributing significantly to the growth of their economies. Most of the countries have set up their rural credit systems being run as state-owned statutory bodies headed by highly professional top management supervised by professional boards who are responsible to arrange, provide, supervise and co-ordinate credit for agricultural purposes. The idea for those state-owned entities is uniformly to embark on the maximum food production and to ensure the full realization of maximum economic and social benefits. During the instant year Paraguay, a small agricultural country has reached an unprecedented 14.5 per cent economic growth by adopting good management practices thus seeing a notable recovery of its economy by record cereal, soy and beef exports. On the contrary our country has handed over the whole system to non serious people to play with and enjoy, just as a reward to party loyal. It is a very sensitive sector needing concrete attention because 170 million people are wholly dependent on this sector. Political rewards can be given by some other way. But this sector requires to be supervised by purely professional people. Otherwise our rural finance system and ultimately the agricultural production will collapse.
This paper is just an outline. There are a number of other measures to strengthen the Bank, the agriculture base, and resultantly overall economic of the country. I will devise a complete working plan covering each and every aspect with justifications, costs, and legal requirements if the Government of Pakistan may so desire.
No comments:
Post a Comment