Growers see gloomy outlook for agri-sector

The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB), a representative body of farmers, has depicted a gloomy outlook for the agricultural productivity as the sector is being stifled by persistent water scarcity and relentless inflation in the prices of the agricultural inputs.

A meeting of the board in Hyderabad on Sunday pointed out that the crop of rice has been sown only on 10 per cent of the land and cotton on 65%.

"Additionally, the other common crops like sugarcane, vegetables and fruits have also been affected in many areas due to the shortage of water and rising costs of inputs," said Mahmood Nawaz Shah, SAB's vice president who chaired the meeting.

The expensive electricity and ceaseless outages are some other factors crippling the agro economy as the rural areas suffer up to 16 hours of outages daily. "The SAB is of the view that the increasing costs with the challenges of severe water shortage and climate change is likely to negatively impact agriculture," Shah observed. "The farmers will suffer and consequently the economy of Pakistan will also suffer when billions of dollars will be required to import these commodities [which can be otherwise locally produced]."

Shah shared the comparative prices of Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertilizer, urea, Sulphate of Potash (SOP), pesticide, diesel and tractor of July 2021 and July 2022 which showed that the rates have more than doubled. A bag of DAP was available at the rate of Rs5,650 in July, 2021. Within a year the price has jacked up over twofold to Rs12,135.

Likewise, the SOP bag is now being sold at around Rs11,000 while its rate was Rs4,600 a year ago. The prices of pesticide and diesel have skyrocketed from Rs700 and Rs132 per liter, respectively, to Rs1,200 and Rs278 per liter. A tractor can be bought at about Rs2.8 million in 2021. A year later it now costs Rs4.2 million

To top it all, the growers contend that they are not being paid the right prices for their produce as a 40 kilogram bag of cotton's price has dropped from Rs12,000 to RS6,800. "The growers aren't able to understand the basis on which the prices are reducing so rapidly," Shah stated, wondering how the prices of inputs are increasing owing to the depreciating rupee but those of the produce are declining.

The SAB urged the government to proactively handle the situation and to immediately stop the duty free import of the commodities that are being produced in Pakistan.

The board further recommended the government to control the costs of inputs and fix reasonable support prices for the crops based on correct analysis of the cost of production. Dr Bashir Nizamani, Dr Zulfiqar Yousfani, Aslam Mari, Imran Bozdar, Arbab Ahsan, Mehtab Lund and other office bearers and members of the board attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2022.