AGRICULTURE CONTRIBUTES 21% GDP and employing 44 percent of the workface. It is still a major contributor to our economy but its role would be more viable as it is performing at its present situation. Pakistani agriculture facing multidimensional problems, our major problem is low productivity. It is said that average yield obtained is almost 30% less than potential yield. If we take the example of wheat crop, our average yield is 26 mounds per acre and potential for varieties is 65-73 mound/acre, so we obtain 64 percent less yield than average yield. Many progressive farmers are taking 50 mounds per acre with same type of lands and resources. So the low yield issues should be addressed. For broad crop spectrum, we can discuss our problems under following heads:
Soil depletion is one of the main issues in low productivity. Due to continuous farming the nutrients in soil get depleted and these soils could not provide balance nutrition to crop. So we cannot achieve better productivity. Everyone knows that for proper plant growth it needs 16 essential nutrients. These nutrients would be available in soil for proper plant growth.
To fulfill the need of more populations we do intensive cropping. One piece of land is cultivated up to four times in a year. So the nutrients get depleted by continuous usage. Secondly today’s high yielding varieties need more nutrition that is a big reason for this nutrient depletion.
The existing soil pH for Pakistani soil is 7.8 to 8.3 on higher side; whereas for proper nutrient up take the pH value should be 5.5 to 7.5. This shows that many nutrients become unavailable to plants though they are present in our soils.
Presence of higher concentration of salts in our soils is another issue for low yield. It is claimed that up to 60% yield loss comes due to soil salinity and sodicity. The other big issue is rain feed land; those are dependent only on rain water so the yield is unpredictable.
Increased urbanization is another big reason; as fertile agricultural lands are being converted to housing colonies. There is no law to address such issues. Fertile land should be reserved to produce more food for humanity, rather than to build new town or cities.
Limited supplies of water also result in low yield. Crops need water at their critical stages necessarily, in case of wheat drought at germination can cause more than 50 percent yield loss. Last year wheat crop was adversely affected by water short fall to the extent of 23.3 percent over normal supplies during Rabi. Secondly the present canal water is not effectively used in our irrigation system. 25-35% losses of water are recorded out of total applied to fields. Due to shortage of canal water farmers have to use tube well water, which is brackish and having higher concentration of different salts and enhances the problem of soil salinity and sodicity. Due to these problems the water in root zone becomes unavailable to plant.
Delayed sowing is another biggest issue for low yield. Such as in wheat crop after 15 November each day delay reduces 15 Kg yield as germinating seed needs a particular temperature. After 15 November temperature goes down slowly and the germination gets affected.
Fertilizer application is another problem which is basically two prongs; one is poor nutrition application and the second is incorrect fertilizer. Moreover, our farmer does not use optimum fertilizers, usually due to price hike they don’t care; especially about nitrogenous fertilizer. In Pakistan per hector usage of NPK is 170 kg/ha where as the recommended is 300 kg/ha.
Weed infestation also reduces yield 17-25% in wheat, 20-60% in rice, 20-45% in maize, and 13-41% in cotton. Lack of weed management itself is a big problem but most of the farmers do not consider it a serious threat for their yield.
Use of poor quality seed is also a yield reduction factor. Very few farmers use certified seed. Mostly farmers prefer their own seed but that seed is not properly prepared due to which uniformity in yield could not achieved. Most of the time, growers do not much care that the last crop was disease free or not, in that case, next crop season disease chances are increased.
Natural factor cannot be minimized. Agriculture in Pakistan always depends on natural factors, heavy rains result in flood and low rainfall results in drought. In our country 67% area receives less than 10 inches rainfall on the other hand, there is no system to store rainfall water.
Mass illiteracy is one of the biggest issues in rural area. Farmers are not up dated with new techniques they firmly fond of old traditional farming methods. At least they should know their profession technically but they are not provided with basic set of information. Furthermore they have small holdings. Our 81% farmers fall in subsistence farmers. Big farmers are mostly absent land lord, they are not concerned with their per acre yield. Managers and tenants are also not concerned with high productivity. While the farmer, who born in debt, live in debt and dies in debt even have no dreams.
It’s dilemma of our agriculture that farm inputs are not available at the time of need. DAP (Di-ammonium phosphate) Urea, always sold in black. Whenever government tries to sale subsidized fertilizer at control rate it opens the way to smuggle to Afghanistan and Middle Asia.
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