Minister stresses public-private tie-up in agriculture

Says academia, farmers can help achieve water efficiency

LAHORE: There is a need to promote public-private partnership in agriculture and the government is committed to improving ease of doing business and promoting the role of private sector in farming, said Punjab Minister for Irrigation and Drainage Mohsin Leghari.

Speaking at a conference titled “Water Productivity in Agriculture - the role of Technology and Private Sector” on Tuesday, Leghari emphasised that water efficiency could not be achieved by a single actor and the gap could be bridged by the academia, researchers and farmers.

Speakers at the conference emphasised the importance of leveraging appropriate technology to achieve water efficiency and save water per unit of production.

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They pointed out that Pakistan did not lack talent and research in the area, however, the absorption of available knowledge by the commercial sector was weak because it had no incentive to save water in the production process.

“Pakistan is an agrarian economy with 80% of the country’s exports depending on water,” they said.

The government manages a huge irrigation system with 107,000 watercourses, irrigating about 35 million acres of land with 44 canal systems and water reservoirs, which provide water at the farmers’ doorsteps. The speakers noted that the agriculture sector was the largest consumer of water in the country. Apart from that, there were several companies whose business depended on agri-based products.

“Experts say that per-unit agricultural productivity of water is very low in Pakistan compared to its regional peers,” they said. “Despite the liberal use of water, Pakistan’s economy is far behind the countries which have less water availability.”

Pakistan ranks 35th in the world in terms of total renewable water resources, which means that only 34 countries are better than Pakistan out of a total of 171 nations.

The countries ranking much lower than Pakistan include Turkey (41), France (42), Sweden (46), Spain (62), the Netherlands (72) and Portugal (79). “All these economies are performing far better than Pakistan’s and they largely depend on agriculture and livestock,” the speakers added.

They called for training the public and private sectors in utilising water efficiently.  They also urged the private sector to achieve water efficiency by investing in technology and cooperating with farmers in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2019.

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