Cabinet members dispute Pakistan's crop estimates

Demand authentic and reliable data of agricultural crops

ISLAMABAD: Members of the cabinet have expressed serious doubt about the projection made by the Federal Committee on Agriculture for the output of different crops and have called for providing reliable data of the agriculture sector, sources say.

They expressed their reservations after a presentation was given on expected production of key crops in a cabinet meeting on February 11.

The Ministry of National Food Security and Research presented relevant data of the harvest of crops but some cabinet members raised questions about authenticity of the data and estimates for financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20.

The minister for national food security acknowledged that the figures were on the higher side, to which the cabinet members suggested that more authentic and reliable data of the agriculture sector should be presented. In the presentation, the cabinet was told that the government had set cotton production target at 15 million bales for 2019-20 but the actual harvest would be 9.4 million bales.

The cotton output would also be lower by 5.1% when compared with the production of 9.9 million bales in 2018-19.

The tenure of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government - from 2013 to 2018 - was said to be the worst when cotton harvest dropped to a low of 9.9 million bales in 2015-16.

However, now when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is running the government, cotton production is going down further and is estimated to hit 9.4 million bales in the current crop season.

Textile barons, being the sole buyers of cotton produced in the country, were said to have caused a loss of Rs52 billion to farmers by offering lower prices and monoplising the market, according to the Ministry of National Food Security.

However, rice production was projected to increase 6.9% compared to the output of last year.

The cabinet was informed that the government had set rice harvest target at 7.4 million tons but actual production would be 7.7 million tons in crop season 2019-20 compared to 7.2 million tons in the previous year.

Sugarcane production target had been set at 68.6 million tons for 2019-20 but actual output would be 67.4 million tons. Its production stood at 67.2 million tons in 2018-19. Officials call agriculture one of the most neglected sectors of Pakistan as the textile sector has created a monopoly and cotton farmers have not been given better returns and have switched to other crops like sugarcane.

However, sugar millers also enjoy a monopoly over the market and in this case too farmers are denied a fair return.

Recently, the country experienced severe wheat flour shortages, though the food security ministry had been telling economic managers that enough wheat stocks were available. Investigation is under way to determine the cause of the scarcity.

Consequently, the government had to ban wheat export and allow its import to stabilise prices of wheat flour in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2020.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.