Youth Parliament

Pakistan
Policy
Recommendation
Agricultural
Transformation and
Support Program

Muhammad Furqan
Khan
YP55-SINDH08
Description
Pakistan, primarily, has an agrarian economy; with more than 67.5
percent of the total population resides in rural areas and is directly or
indirectly involved in agricultural activities. Agricultural sector contributes
about 21 percent of the GDP and employs 43.7 percent of the total labor
force of the country. The agricultural sector is vital to the overall economy of
the country as it provides foreign exchange through international trade (45
percent of export), raw material to the industrial sector, employment and
feed an overwhelming population of 180 million.

Overview of Agricultural Sector (Economic Survey of

Pakistan 2013-2014)
The agriculture sector has four subsectors including: crops (important and
other), livestock, fisheries and forestry. Overall the Agriculture sector
recorded a growth of 2.1 percent against the growth of 2.9 percent last year.

Important crops account for 25.24 percent of agricultural value

addition. This sub-sector has recorded a growth of 3.74 percent
compared to a growth of 1.19 percent last year. The important crops
include all major crops like wheat, maize, rice, sugarcane and cotton.
Other crops have share of 11.65 percent to value addition in overall
agriculture sector. This sub-sector has witnessed growth at (-) 3.53
percent against the growth of 6.05 percent last year.
Livestock contributes 55.91 percent of agriculture value addition.
Livestock consist of cattle, buffalos, sheep, goat, camel, horses, asses,
mules and poultry and their products. It has registered a growth of 2.88
percent against 3.99 percent last year.

Growth of the forestry sub-sector is witnessed at 1.52 percent as

compared to the growth of 0.99 percent last year.
Fisheries sub-sector has 2.03 percent contribution in agriculture
registered a growth of 0.98 percent compared to the growth of 0.65
percent last year.

Issues faced by the Agricultural Sector

Though the agricultural sector is facing problems in Pakistan, yet the
major chunk of money comes from this sector. The pertinent problems of the
agricultural sector of Pakistan which hinder its growth and development are:
Despite having an extensive irrigation system, Pakistan is estimated to
be losing 13 million cusecs of water every year from its rivers into the sea, as
it does not have the required reservoirs capacity to store water and bring it
under utilization for agricultural purposes. Similarly, the Pakistani farmers are
still utilizing archaic method of flood irrigation which is inefficient and wastes
around 50 to 60 percent of the water. This is causing the alarming problem of
water logging and salinity, which renders the cultivatable land into the
barren land. Until now no effective measures have been taken to control it.
Moreover, the storage capacity of the current dams is decreasing; due to
siltation at their basin thus reducing the water availability per acre. Because
of which farmers are motivated towards installing tube wells to irrigate their
crops; which also contributes toward salinity and becoming a major issue in
most parts of Punjab and Sindh.
The failure of the previous agricultural reforms is evident by the fact
that traditional methods of cultivation and harvesting are still predominant;
which results in low yield per acre. In comparison to other developing
countries like India and Bangladesh, who are using modern scientific
methods of cultivation, cattle rearing, irrigation and agricultural research and
development, the yield gap per acre is wide and Pakistan is producing below
its productive capability. Pakistan is far behind in adopting modern
agricultural practice and no serious attempt is being made to revert it.
Domestically, Pakistan has failed to meet the mechanical and high yield
variety seed demand by local farmers. Furthermore, Pakistan has failed to
evolve sustainable agricultural practices which are resulting in the reduction
of the soil fertility and wastage of water, fertilizer and pesticides.

In addition to this the main focus of government policies has been on

land and crop yield, however, the man behind the plough is conveniently
ignored. A typical Pakistani farmer is illiterate, lacks financial capacity and
engages in small subsistence farming. Despite having the agricultural
research and educational institution in the country, the benefit of modern
agricultural research and modern agricultural practice have not trickled down
to the small farmer. Currently, there is a sheer lack of avenues for an
illiterate farmer to avail information regarding modern practice and modern
agricultural instruments. Furthermore, since majority of the farmers practice
farming at small scale and only own 4 acres of land; they lack financial
capacity to practice commercial farming and elevate out of poverty. These
small farmers do not have facilities to avail small agricultural credit purchase
to seeds, pesticides, fertilizers etc.
Pakistan has around 32 million hectors of cultivatable land, whereas
only 21.9 million hectors is cultivated. The underutilization of land resource is
due to the fact that the major landholders are large feudal owners, who only
bring partial landholding under-cultivation and the rest is left uncultivated.
Likewise, the farmers who work on their lands are just tenants. This uncertain
situation of occupancy neither creates incentive of work hard nor attracts

capital investment. Similarly over the past few decades government

prioritization of industrial sector has diverted resources from agriculture to
the development of industries. Moreover, to address the problem of land
utilization and small farm size, there has been land reform but they have
remained a controversial and complex issue. Large landowners retain their
power over small farmers and tenants, especially in the interior of Sindh,
which has a feudal agricultural establishment. Tenancy continues on a largescale: one-third of Pakistan's farmers are tenant farmers, including almost
one-half of the farmers in Sindh. The major obstacle to effective land reforms
implementation in the country is a landmark verdict by the Shariat Bench of
the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The Qazalbash Waqf vs. Chief Land
Commissioner judgment; the case involved the expropriation of land of
Qazalbash Waqf, a religious charitable trust with more than a thousand acres
of irrigated land near Lahore. The land was appropriated for land reform
during the regime of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bhutto enacted the Martial Law Regulation, which provided for land to be
taken from the rich and distributed among the poor. The Land Reform Act
1977 (Act II of 1977) further lowered the maximum limit of land ownership
and provided cash compensation to those who surrendered land. However,
the losses of the land by the landowners were not taken lightly and efforts
were made to strike down the reforms. As a result, when Bhutto was
removed from office by General Zias martial law government, the
Islamization of the laws of Pakistan began. Zia set up Shariat benches in
the High Court of each province that were tasked to examine and decide
whether any law or provision of law was against the injunctions of the Islamic
law. After some time, provincial Shariat benches of four provincial high courts
were consolidated in the form of one Federal Shariat Court (FSC). Qazalbash
Waqf approached the FSC in 1979. By 1989, the FSC declared land reforms
un-Islamic and the land reform legislations passed during the time of Bhutto
null and void.
To address problems faced by Pakistans agricultural sector there is a
need of comprehensive agricultural and land reforms which present a
comprehensive solution for infrastructural and commodity value chain
development and appropriate land reforms to boost the agrarian growth and
increase productive efficiency, while ensuring the overall rural development
to alleviate widespread poverty and creating employment opportunities.

Objectives
The Agricultural Transformation and Support Programs specific objective
is to increase, on a sustainable basis, the income, ensuring food security,
alleviate poverty and improve living standards of the agrarian-rural
community that is engaged in the production, processing, storage and
marketing of agricultural commodities.

Rationale
The Agricultural Transformation and Support Program (ATSP) has a
huge potential in enhancing the role of agriculture as an engine of inclusive
growth leading to rural employment, wealth creation, and diversification of
the economy. According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2013-2014,
agricultural sector employs 43.7% Pakistani labor force, currently only
contributes 24% to the GDP of the Pakistan; even Pakistan is predominately
an agrarian economy. The beneficiaries of these reforms are more than 70%
of the Pakistan population, who either are directly or indirectly involved in
the agricultural sector.

Policy Recommendation
Component 1: Infrastructural Development
The main thrust of the new reforms should be targeted towards rehabilitation
of agricultural and ancillary social infrastructure to revive the sector.
Pakistan irrigation system has not undergone any major expansion or
maintenance project. Besides developing new dams (water reservoir), head
works and canals, the current system requires an extensive up gradation

efforts. The major dams need to be protected against the siltation problem,
and increase their capacity to extend their useful life. Moreover, modern
irrigation water conveyance canals need to be built, with lined green banks;
both to reduce water wastage due to land seepage with cause salinity and as
a measure of protection against flush floods. Moreover, a comprehensive
system of water drainage parallel to irrigation system need to be developed
to ensure agricultural sustainability by protecting soil from erosion and water
logging.
To ensure to development of agricultural market and ensure better
connectivity between rural and urban region, there is a dire need of
establishing modern motorways across country, with a modern network of
feeder roads to ensure the smooth flow of input in the rural region and of
output to the urban region for consumption and export. Better connectivity
bridges the gap between rural and urban areas; consequently develop rural
markets and provide symmetrical information to the farmers.
Currently Pakistan requires an effort to develop rural development
support system to ensure a sustainable growth both in income and living
standards. Government on the urgent bases needs to increase the share of
development funds for the rural areas for the establishment of new schools
and health centers and rehabilitation of the current institution to meet the
need of the modern times. The literacy and health of farmer and his family is
essential to driving the growth engine of the agricultural sector and ensuring
adoption of modern farming techniques and mechanization of farms.
To encourage the adoption of modern agricultural and irrigation
practice and to educate farms in the modern practices of farming there is
dire need of establishing demonstration and technology centers in individual
agricultural district. The aim of these institutions would be to provide a
bridge between agricultural universities of Pakistan to direct reach out to
farms in their areas to inform farmer about modern sustainable practice.
Furthermore, there is a need to increase the penetration of internet in the
rural areas, so that a cost effective procedure of information dispersion and
credit facilitation can be ensured.
As the Pakistan agrarian markets are operating under traditional mode
of operation, there is a need to modernize them. For dairy to grain the supply
chain lacks the storage facilities to cut down the output losses. Government
should encourage farmers and agririan traders to establish modern trading
practice and storage facilities to cut down the demand side cost and
spoilage.

As the average Pakistani farmer is small and lack the financial capital
to invest in modern agricultural techniques, the government should
encourage the private and agricultural banks to increase the amount of
credit borrowing available to the farmer. The easy access to the borrowing
will encourage small farmer to pursue modernization of farming techniques
and mechanization of farms. The new avenues of financial support through
the means of internet can open horizon of agricultural development.
Furthermore, the agricultural banks should utilize the mobile platform for
agri-banking and insurance farms should develop means of crop insurance to
safeguards farmers from unforeseeable losses.

Component 2: Agricultural Commodity Value Chain Development

Commodity value chain development refers to the structuring of the
whole range of goods and services necessary for an agricultural product to
move from the farm to the final customer or consumer; while utilizing
modern methods of production, processing, delivery and research.

In the past, agrarian reforms were either targeting a particular link in

the value chain or a specific input or output need. However, to transform the
entire sector there is a need to rethink and modernize all links in the chain to
promote an inclusive and sustainable growth.
To begin with there is prerequisite for the development of agrarian
sector to cope with evolving needs, so a significant focus need to give on the
capacity development for public (agricultural research, extension, relevant
Ministries department such as Rural Development, Monitoring and
Evaluation for efficient external supervision), private (Micro Finance
Institutions,
agro-dealers,
etc.)
and
community-based
(producers
organizations, cooperatives, inter-professional bodies, etc.) institutions.
training value chain actors in technical and managerial skills; promoting use
of science & technology; training in post-harvest reduction methods
including food processing; business and entrepreneurship training; training of
communities and health workers on prevention and management of common
diseases as well as good nutrition, sanitation & hygiene practices;
development of market information system (MIS); management of
environmental and social impacts; implementation of policies to promote
private investment in agriculture.

Component 3: Land Reforms

Pakistan, given the highly unequal distribution of landownership and

new technology in agriculture has unleashed powerful contradictions which
are not only likely to become constraints on continued agricultural growth,
but are also generating acute social tensions: the nature of the economic
process, in the absence of an effective land reform, is such that it is
enriching the rural elite at the expense of the rapid deterioration in the
economic and social conditions of the majority of the rural population.
The previous enact land reforms are satisfactory to achieve desired
social and economic results; with slight amendments. The classical
application of land reforms (ceiling on land holdings) is deemed un-Islamic by
Shariat Court and the door to the implementation of reforms is pretty much
closed; so the government has to undertake the investigation of the nature
of land ownership at the time of Independence. Due to the court decision the
use of Islamic notion of social welfare no longer is applicable in order to
justify state intervention in property rights of individuals. The future outlook
for the reform as pointed out by Justice (R) Dr. Tanzilur-Rahman, ex-Chief
Justice of the Federal Shariat Court is that [State should] set up a high
powered National Commission for Lands to make country-wide inquiries
and investigations as to the mode of acquisition of the lands by the landlords
and their predecessors-in-interest, and to determine whether they are valid
or not in the eye of Shariah. Due to colonial appropriation of the major
landholding in the country, they could be designated as unethically
appropriated land to further the interest of the British colonial enterprise.
Thus deem these appropriate as un-Islamic and bring them under the state
ownership and distribute back to millions of landless tenant in the country.
Secondly, there is another possibility that lies with the legislators, that is to
review the existence of the Federal Shariat Court (and the Shariat Appellate
Bench) itself and there-after re-introduce legislation along the lines of the 72
and 77 reforms.
The Pakistani agricultural growth has been predicated on the rapid
increase in yields of the relatively larger farms due to the benefits derived
from mechanization of farms and use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides;
which are out of the reach of the small farmers. However, continued growth
in the next decades will have to be derived from increasing yields per acre of
the small farmers. An essential precondition for this is the institutional and
economic change which will give the small farmer better access over the
new inputs, and greater control over his production process and investable
surplus. In this sense, an effective land reform is now not only an imperative
of a more equitable economic growth, but of growth itself.

Conclusion and Recommendations Summary:

There is a dire to take measures to increase agricultural factor

productivity by increasing efficiency by adopting modern
agricultural practices and operations; through encourage both
public and private sector investment in agriculture R&D and crop
extension technique.
To make rural areas economically viable, there is a need to increase
profitability by stabilizing and rationalizing agricultural input and
output prices, ensuring reduction production and post-production
losses.
To perform better in world market there is a need to make Pakistani
agricultural produce competitive by reducing cost of production,
developing comprehensive agricultural marketing strategy,
improving quality and ensuring WTOs sanitary and phyto-sanitary
(SPS) compliance.
For a sustainable development of agricultural sector in Pakistan,
there is need to diffuse basic and technical agricultural knowledge
among illiterate and small farmer through developing a
comprehensive educational program by agricultural universities and
institutes; with an aim to promoting environment friendly
agricultural practices through incentives and rewards.
To curb the losses from salinity and waterlogging, a modernization
plan of Pakistans irrigation system is required, along with educating
farmers of the opportunity that modern irrigation practices present
them.
To increase the agricultures contribution in the GDP, the
government need to direct its effort towards rural community
development program; focusing on establishment of rural
infrastructures and modernization of agricultural markets.
To reduce the social inequality, there is need to reboot the Land
Reform Ordinance of 1977, a stronger social case need to made to

make the reforms compliant to the decision of the Shariat Appellate

Bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistans decision.
To support the growth of industrial sector and increasing value
addition in agricultural products, government need to divert its
attention towards encouraging both public and private to invest in
processing agricultural products before exporting it out.

Appendix