Need for agrarian reforms

Agrarian reforms are significant for any country as they help in flourishing the national economy. Currently, the agriculture sector of Pakistan contributes 19% of the GDP and employs about 43% of the labour force. In the 1980s, agriculture growth was 5.4%, which now stands at 3.8%. In the last couple of decades, agricultural yields have declined due to ill-conceived agriculture policies, institutions’ degeneration and bad governance.

Instead of export, more focus has been placed on import in the last one decade. It has marred local agriculture potentials. Such incidents are common in the country nowadays — burning standing sugarcane crops, destroying tomatoes, potatoes and onions due to low prices.

Therefore, the reform of the agriculture sector is the need of the hour in order to compete with the global agriculture market trends. Agrarian reforms have five major dimensions that could be adopted to work towards developing the sector:

Land reforms — According to a research study, 5% of large landowners possess 64% of farmland and 65% small landholders have only 15% of farmland, while the landless constitutes 50%. According to the Land Reform Regulation 1959, no one individual could own more than 500 acres of irrigated and 1,000 acres of unirrigated land or a maximum of 36,000 produce index units (PIU), whichever was greater. But this Land Reform Regulation is no more in use anywhere. There are plenty of people who have thousands of acres of irrigated lands. In this regard, the government needs to redistribute land to peasants and landless. In rural areas, it will alleviate poverty and diminish inequality, diminish the power and dominance of feudal lords. It will make Pakistan’s agricultural production more efficient. Also, it will transform traditional ways into modern agricultural entrepreneurship.

Market liberalisation — As markets globalise, international market polarisation turns out to be a critical area for developing, positioning and selling produces around the world. It is even more crucial for emerging markets like Pakistan. The increasing globalisation and emerging markets have become strategic and important for marketers in the last two decades. The styles of economic growth due to emerging markets have changed globally. And Pakistan should also follow suit.

Urban finance — Pakistan’s policies are urban focused. But it should be rural focused to reform the agriculture sector. Though there is no doubt that urban financing is important, as it generates revenues through property, business and user taxes, rural finance is also important for a rural economy as ours, which is based on agricultural development.

Market institutions — For agricultural input, market institutions play a key role. Pakistan is deficient in market institutions and strong linkages with international markets to export the surplus produce. There is a lot of potential to export Pakistan’s food items through international institutions and markets; we just need to build trust in the international market. Pakistan needs to revitalise its market for agrarian reforms to boost the economy.

To use of modern technology — Today, we are in the information and technology era. Modern agricultural technology is used to improve the wide types of production practices employed by farmers. The hybrid seeds of selected variety of a single crop are being used to have more yields. Technologically advanced equipment and lots of energy subsidies in the form of irrigation water, fertilisers and pesticides is being promoted. Agricultural technology is among the most ground-breaking and impactful areas of modern technology, driven by the fundamental needs for food and feeding an increasing population. It is an era in which motorised machinery does the work that previously was carried out by people and animals. There is no doubt that the machines have enormously increased farm production and intensely transformed the way people are working and producing food worldwide. Pakistan needs to promote a high efficiency irrigation system to get more agricultural yield on less water such as drip irrigation systems; rain-gun, etc. Moreover, integrated agricultural practices also need to be adopted and promoted.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2019.

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