October 30, 2001	Tuesday	Shaba'an 12, 1422

KARACHI, Oct 29: The State Bank of Pakistan perceives vast opportunity for Pakistan’s farmers to “avail the emerging world demand for organically produced food items” and has suggested to go in a big way in that direction.

“Retail sales of organics in 2001 (in the US) is projected at 59.3 billion dollars,” the SBP Annual Report of 2000-2001 reveals. Released on Monday, the SBP report quotes a survey on Organics Consumer Trend 2001, published by the US based Natural Marketing Institute in cooperation with the Organic Trade Association, which projects sales of organic agricultural products to touch 500 billion dollars figure in the year 2005.

Feared with the havoc of ‘mad cow’ and ‘foot and mouth’ disease, commonly understood, associated to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) technology, consumers in developed countries have even been increasingly becoming wary of the use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides, which, the SBP report says, is an integral part of modern farming.

“Pakistan, being the agricultural country should make use of this emerging opportunity by producing higher exportable surplus of organically produced kitchen items, in the first phase and production of staple crop (cotton), on the selected fields, in the second,” the SBP suggests.

The report says that Pakistan enjoys a greater opportunity of exporting these items to the neighbouring rich countries of the Gulf, besides exporting to industrialized countries.

“In Pakistan, farming practices, at some places, are very much close to the organic approach,” the report observes and points out that most of the un-irrigated lands with their intact biological conditions can better be utilised for undertaking organic enterprises. As a matter of fact, a number of farmers in Pakistan are already engaged in producing organic agricultural products at least for their own use.

The report identifies some other inherent advantages that lead towards exercising the option of organic farming favourably.

These are (i) availability of labour at cheaper rates, availability of unexploited resources of land and least exposure of Pakistan’s farmers to genetically managed organisms (GMO) technology.

Pakistan’s current export earnings from vegetables and fruits to Europe and neighbouring countries stand at 115.6 million dollars during 01. With domestic environment conducive to producing organic vegetables, fruits and livestock products, Pakistan can be introduced as a supplier of organic food items by launching a powerful marketing campaign in international market.

“This is a good opportunity of earning foreign exchange through non-traditional exports because organically produced food items, at present fetch higher prices than inorganic counterparts.

In organic farming, strictly speaking agricultural produce are obtained without using (i) chemical fertilizer, (ii) pesticides and herbicides and (iii) genetically modified organism technology (GMOs). In its less strict form, organic enterprise is supplemented only by kinds of fertilizer and pesticides are not liable to kill or destroy activity of soil organism.