Shafqat Ali

 

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 18 (Gwadar Pro) - A Pakistani parliamentary committee on Wednesday afternoon directed that the Agriculture Growth Strategy should be linked to CPEC.

 

At a meeting of the National Assembly’s Sub-Committee of the Special Committee on Agriculture Products, Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser invited the policy experts and practitioners to critically analyze the NA Committee’s proposed agricultural growth strategy, policy levers, reform instruments and implementation plan, and propose corrective measures where necessary.

 

The experts while appreciating the proposed strategy unanimously stated that a Pro-Small Farmers policy lens was crucial to accelerating sustained agricultural growth rate and rural poverty alleviation, said an official statement.  The meeting was presided by Convener of the Sub-Committee Shandana Gulzar Khan at the Parliament House. 

 

The chief components of the strategy include Special initiatives for Balochistan, South Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhaw, Tharparkar,  Cotton Revival program, Oilseed Development, Low-Cost Refinance Line of Credit and Credit Enhancement for Digital Production Finance,  Digitization of Demand-Driven Extension Content, Integrated Seed System, Agriculture Climate Change Insurance Pool or Farmer Risk Transfer Mechanism, Satellite-based Crop Reporting, Establishment of Agriculture Development Authority for Coordination of Reform Implementation, linkages with Ehsaas (care), Kamyab Jawan (successful youth) and CPEC and incentives for promoting investment in warehousing, contract farming and farmers produce organizations, said the statement.

 

The panelists appreciated the Speaker National Assembly and Special Committee on Agricultural Products for the elaborate, well thought-out and holistic strategy to drive up Pakistan’s agro-productivity.

 

Shandana Gulzar Khan, the Convener of the Sub-Committee explained that the objective of the plan is to accelerate the modernization of the agriculture sector so that the sector can generate resources for the sustained development of the economy with a high degree of self-reliance.

 

Outlining the reform objectives, she remarked that there were twin aims of this reform plan; firstly, to enable the agriculture sector to achieve a sustained growth rate of 7.5% per annum by 2027 and secondly, to ensure that the poorest farmer, the Small-Holder Farmer (SHF) can be brought out of slavish poverty.

 

She added that the intended growth will also have positive additional spillovers i.e. reducing rural poverty, digital financial inclusion, improved food safety, security and quality, bio-diversity, formalization of the agricultural economy, supporting import substitution as well as supporting growth of exports to Central and South Asia and Africa.

 

The panelists agreed upon and supported the proposal to revamp the agricultural lending system to unlock the farmers from the Arthis’ dominated exploitative informal lending mechanism and debated the role of the banks and micro-finance institutions to cater to the demand of the agricultural credit.

 

The experts endorsed the digitization of credit, public procurement, advisory and extension services and weather index based climate insurance pool.

 

The panel also stressed the need for a phased approach to end the distorted subsidies through a business model of the small farmers. It was unanimously agreed that structural reforms like contract farming, professionally managed farmers’ cooperatives and village produce organizations, multiple produce markets and investment in warehousing were pivotal to driving up agro-productivity.