PAKISTAN achieved high economic growth rate throughout the 1950s and early 1960s as the agricultural sector growth was spurred by green revolution interventions.

The overall GDP growth rate was 6.1 per cent during 1960s. Thereafter due to one reason or the other, the attainments of this revolution could not be sustained and now we have come to a stage where we can’t claim ourselves as one of the leading agrarian states.

Presently Pakistan is incurring growing import demand for edible oil, wheat and tea. The share of GDP, contributed by the agricultural sector, has declined gradually, from 53 per cent in 1947 to current 24 per cent. Nonetheless, it is important for Pakistan’s macro-economy as it provides raw input to the manufacturing sector.

Since 1970s agricultural output in Pakistan grew by about 3 per cent per year, but it is highly variable from year to year. The variability of the agricultural sector is attributed to several factors, some of which are preventable, although they are recurring with increasing intensity in recent years. In order to attain a sustainable agricultural production system, we need to evolve a revolution in this most vital sector, by attending structural problems in the sector.

The first thing in this direction is to achieve self-sufficiency in food commodities. Agro-technologies around the world have learned how to overcome hurdles like low rainfall, lack of fertile soil, water scarcity and salinity. What is to be done is to support farmers through a network of research stations, academic establishments and agricultural extension service. It can only be done if we convert the whole country into a research station.

All around the world, impressive achievements have been made, even in countries that have never had the honour of being agricultural. Israel, once a desert state— poor in water and arable land—, has transformed itself as an exporter of $1 billion a year in fresh and processed food and $2 billion in agricultural inputs. They have achieved record yields in many agricultural products. An average milking cow produces 9400 litres of milk a year compared with 6900 litres in Denmark and 5800 litres in Holland. The average tomato yield is 180-200 tonnes per hectare compared with 90 tonnes per hectare in the USA.

The next step would be to establish an export market by meeting demand for the ever-increasing yields. Holland has only two million hectare of land, less than one tenth of Pakistan’s which possesses 22 million hectare of cultivable land. Holland’s agricultural export is around $15 billion. On the other hand, our total agricultural and non-agricultural export stays around $9 billion a year.

Conventional techniques seem to be quite insufficient in keeping pace with the scale of increases required for the current century. Genetic engineering will not only provide varieties with higher yields, shorter maturity period and broader resistance characteristics will reduced the time factor also.

The third target should be evolving a business approach towards agricultural development in which production programmes are determined on the basis of market opportunities. We have before us a very major market in the Middle East, which imports vegetables and fruits from America, Europe and elsewhere. If we can convert a fraction of our cultivable land for high value agriculture purpose with fruits and vegetables, we could enhance our agricultural exports considerably.

The present government seems committed to bring about a revolutionary change for the uplift of common people. As our agriculture has its roots in common people, basically it is agriculture that can fulfil our commitment. For this purpose, our researchers need to abandon the paper-oriented research and adopt the field-oriented research.

This can only be done by introducing structural reforms in the agricultural sector. We do have excellent research infrastructure and a large number of experts in the field. We have also favourable climate and hard-working peasants. We do have vast fertile land and abundance of water resources. What is lacking is sincere commitment.

Although agricultural research has been conducted in Pakistan for half a century, it lacks an enlightened policy that would specify our priorities and targets. The current ratio of operational funds to the total allocation is well below the required level of the effective agricultural system.

It is a fact that investment in agricultural research has a very high pay-off. But unfortunately, our policy makers have never realized this fact. A big number of institutes administrating agricultural research may be a reason for it as research efforts in Pakistan are highly fragmented. There are about 83 federal and provincial institutions performing research. This does not include those in private sector.

Apart from this low allocation for research activities, the system also suffers from other shortcomings. Introduction and use of higher technology and more intensive production system requires strong support from extension services. But our experts have only nominal contacts with the farming community.There is a vast gap in the concepts of the two.The scientists consider our illeterate farmersas foolish but they lack resources.Had they been provided all inputs at the right time and at an affordable price they would have done far better than what the scientists have achieved at their research stations.

The national agricultural research system and the agricultural extension system, therefore, must act now to transfer farm technologies and management interventions, which are critical for high productivity and pay-off in the short run. This is the only way of our survival in the economic globalization era of the future.