Experts from the corporate and agriculture sectors have called for the promotion of corporate farming along with agriculture research as an immediate solution to the problems faced by farmers to ensure food security of the country.
Express Media Group in collaboration with Fatima Fertiliser organised a discussion on the occasion of International Farmers Day.
Experts noted that the agriculture sector and farmers have been badly affected by the recent floods. As a consequence, challenges related to food security have increased manifold.
Farmers have played a critical role in dealing with every crisis situation faced by the country. The survival of the farmers is, therefore, the survival of Pakistan.
Hence, it is necessary to implement an agriculture emergency programme and to provide an immediate solution to the problems faced by farmers.
Fatima Fertiliser Director Sales and Marketing Rabel Sado Zai, Pakistan Kissan Ittehad President Khalid Khokhar and Fatima Fertiliser Farmer Engagement Manager Naseerullah Khan attended the online discussion with Irum Khwaja as the moderator.
Rabel Sado Zai stated that the agriculture sector has a share of Rs15,000 billion in the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). For the improvement of the sector, the private sector must play its role along with the government.
In addition, “unless women are not side by side with men, the agriculture sector will not develop”.
She further underscored that the role of the media is pivotal for creating awareness and removing gender-based stereotypes. For example, Fatima Fertiliser has highlighted the hard work of women farmers through digital media platforms.
Stories of determined women like Rabia Sultan, Nazoo Dharijo and Jugnu Mohsin have been highlighted to encourage and empower women farmers.
Khalid Khokhar highlighted the immense destruction caused by floods that destroyed the ready crops of farmers, killed livestock and damaged houses.
“With the government largely absent, aid agencies have provided assistance to farmers. The biggest problem of the agriculture sector is lack of equal opportunities, including limited government support.”
Due to the outdated practices, lack of research and lack of productivity, it is becoming difficult to meet the needs of the growing population. The government is spending only 1.8% of agriculture GDP on agri-research. Agriculture has never been a priority of any government in the past. The agriculture sector continues to be neglected in Pakistan, despite the spectre of rising food insecurity, he added.
Khokhar underlined that a lot of foreign exchange is spent on food imports, much less of which could be spent on protecting farmers and improving the agriculture sector to put Pakistan on the path to self-sufficiency”.
Naseerullah Khan remarked that the year 2022 has been very painful for the people of Pakistan, especially farmers, who have suffered widespread economic losses.
“Agriculture is the backbone of the country’s economy and the government and private sector are determined to bring the agriculture sector out of this crisis. It is hoped that the situation will improve soon because the sector has the natural ability to recover at the fastest speed.”
He explained that food security can be ensured through the involvement of the private sector. Corporate farming in the country is the need of the hour. The corporate sector has international links with resources and technology that can be utilised for agricultural development.
“Since a large area of agriculture land is currently not under cultivation, corporate farming can make this area cultivable, for which public-private partnership and corporate farming will have to be adopted.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2022.
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