More than 50 per cent of the people of Pakistan live in rural areas and more than 90 per cent of them are involved in agriculture directly or indirectly by providing services to farmers. Services providers include all artisans, technicians, and transporters, all of whom cater for farmers’ requirements.

The only way of reducing rural poverty is to increase income per acre and only horticultural crops can easily achieve this by employing more people per acre and more returns per unit of land, water and manpower. It needs revolutionary changes in cropping patterns, methods of irrigation and application of chemical fertilizers and labour. It also needs new technologies to process the produce for value adding.

The present trend of advancing small loans to those categories of artisans and technicians, does not resolve the issue, as in rural areas all artisans and technicians work less than normal hours each day, due to lack of work and they are part-time unemployed in disguise. By adding more people in the same fields, we will increase part-time unemployment.

Those who migrate to cities for employment face many socio-economic problems in adjustments and find it difficult in changed environments. The solution lies in improvement of agriculture, increase in yields and thereby income. Below are a few but definite suggestions for alleviation of rural poverty:

Rural poverty can quickly and easily be reduced but only by switching from field crops to horticultural crops, like fruits, nuts, vegetables, floriculture, herbs and spices, as they can employ five times as much labour as field crops and also fetch five times more returns.

Improving cropping patterns by introducing new value added crops and preferably the ones which give very high returns.

Intensive horticultural cropping can increase income 5-10 fold and employ more people.

Producing crops primarily for export as there is tremendous scope for export of nuts, fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc., in developed countries.

Improvement in agriculture is not possible under the present mismanagement of agriculture by uneducated Kamdars. The land owners have to engage educated farm supervisors and learn for themselves, though neither books are available for guidance of land owners at present, nor the universities conduct such short-term cources.

Special courses for training of farm foremen, farm supervisors farm managers and farm owners should be started in the private sector, to overcome shortcomings of Kamdars. Libraries at agricultural universities and colleges lack proper and latest literature on agriculture, text books, journals and bulletins, and this has resulted in lowering standards of agriculture education, leading to deterioration of agricultural extension, research and education.

Consequently our yields are only 30-33 per cent what they are in developed countries and this obviously is the cause of rural poverty.

Due to lack of proper education, present agricultural universities and colleges are producing a number of unemployable, and need revolutionary changes to meet the requirement of extension and research.

Introduction of private sector extension service on experimental basis may be tried and started in one district and specially for promoting horticultural crops, and this may be the immediate solution, but long-term planning too needs to be undertaken.

A post-harvest training institute in the private sector should be set up to train growers, marketers, exporters and farm managers.

Mechanization of vegetables needs to be promoted to increase area under them, to reduce costs of production and provide employment for the handling of larger crop. Row crops like cotton, maize, castor, ground nuts, potato, and vegetables should mechanized.

Harvest season of horticultural crops can be extended by introducing new cultivars;harvest losses of crops, which are 10-15 per cent in field crops and 50 per cent in horticultural crops should be minimized.

All fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides kill soil fauna. Their use must be reduced. The US has reduced it by more than 60 per cent in past 20 years. We in Pakistan have multiplied it many folds.

All farm wastes can be composted and more economically than any other uses. This technology needs to be introduced on each farm on large scale to save costs on fertilizers, improve soil health and increase yields.

Water Sector: In Sindh no appreciable seepage takes place from watercourses, minors and canals, but most of it is from fields, as doses applied are in excess of water requirements of crops or even evaporation. Seepage losses of water vary 30-80 per cent in various months of the year. This has to be investigated as lining of canals and watercourses may not be necessary.

Precision land levelling is must and the agriculture department has to be geared to it. The operations can be started by the private sector. Industrial wheel type tractors of 150 H.P., with laser operated dozer blades are suitable for the purpose. Present equipment with the department is of wrong size, wrongly fitted and cumbersome to operate. Drip and sprinkler irrigation are uneconomical under the present price structure of agriculture commodities in Pakistan.

Looking to the above factors, efficient but simple and cheap irrigation water applications have to be evolved.

Double cropping now suggested by departments of agriculture in Pakistan is misleading. It reduces yield of both crops. Growing field crops in an orchard reduces yield of tree crops as well as of the intercrop. The total income is less than the mono-crop of trees or field crops.

Adapting major crops to row cropping and making ridges and furrows for them, may save water by 25 per cent and also increase yield by 15-25 per cent.Introducing new crop and cultivars, needing less water is one of the solutions to water shortage. Introducing genetically drought resistant crops is another solution.

Mango season in Sindh can be extended from the present 8 weeks i.e., May 20 to July 15 to 6 months i.e., from April 15 to October 15, and this may be given top priority.

Sugar beet does not suit Sindh and the Punjab. Its yield and sugar content will be low and sugar production from it will be totally uneconomical. This decision of the government needs to be properly examined.

Experimenting with coconut and palm oil is waste as under saline soils and water logging they will have poor economy and their yields will be very low.