12 April 2004	Monday	21 Safar 1425

The Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) annually undertakes the exercise of fixing targets for crops. A host of meetings of experts from the sector are held to decide on targets for main crops as also some relatively less important ones, though strictly speaking, from the farmers point of view, one crop is as good as another because they are all linked with their survival.

There are questions about the government's planning, assessment and relevance of targets that are fixed. First, agriculture is a provincial subject and should be left to provinces.

There is much talk of provincial autonomy and politicians of all varieties keep harping on this subject, demanding more powers for provinces but strangely, no one insists that provinces should at least enjoy rights already granted to them under the Constitution, particularly in areas that are out of the jurisdiction of the federal government for practical reasons and are generally infertile land for a federal role.

One relevant point is that the federal government has no land except what comprises Islamabad or Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). Right now that part of the country is being cultivated by a different kind of crop; one hopes that the seeds planted there do not mature and flourish. Some people fear that conditions are already turning favourable for such a crop outside Fata. The very idea sends shivers down the spine of many citizens.

As for the capital, Islamabad, it is still to decide about the trees that are environmentally desirable and does not spread allergy-based diseases. It is currently pursuing a decorative design and that is exactly what the capital, regularly visited by important personalities from around the globe, really requires.

It must impress them and help them form a positive impression of the country because Islamabad is Pakistan's show-window. Every effort should be made to make it a more attractive city.

Fixing targets for crops is no business of Islamabad not only constitutionally but also because, even if the exercise is conducted and completed with sincerity and best of intentions, means and materials for achieving identified ends are available only in the provinces.

The land is with the provinces. Farmers who cultivate the land live and till the land in provinces. What the farmers need for their crops and during the post crop periods is to be determined and evaluated by provinces. Only provincial administrations can meet their requirements.

Federal authorities obtain information from the provinces and deliver it back to them in the form of targets. Great pains, in the form of series of meetings of experts and professionals, at times including even farmers though mostly of the feudal denomination, are held over a period.

The best minds from the agriculture sector of the country express themselves eloquently in these august gatherings held for determining targets. But if there is any rationale behind these efforts, it is not really on view.

Some of the crops are intertwined with the industrial sector and that is where the federal government, both industries and agriculture ministries, can provide guidance and help to farmers.

If the federal government plays its due role, there wouldn't be a glut of sugar every year, at least there shouldn't be excess of produce on the one hand and growers failing to dispose of the crop on time to enable them to move on to the next crop as per the cultivation cycle; now they end up delaying the next crop with the result that they lose income twice a year and the country similarly suffers due to shortfall in the next crop which is wheat.

The federal government can, indeed it must, act as a bridge between the agriculture sector and industries run with the raw material provided by farmers, keep both sectors informed of each other's requirements and ensure an equitable deal for both, particularly the growers who are often, if not invariably, exploited and deprived of due rewards of their sweat and toil while industrialists not only prosper but are also granted special favours by the government, such as the purchase of excess sugar from millowners when the pressure should be on them for clearing back payment of cane farmers.

This is equally applicable to the cotton crop that is regularly subjected to pressures for lowering the price of crop by the textile millers representing the biggest as also the most pampered industrial segment in the country. It receives maximum patronage from the government while cotton growers remain underpaid and unsure of what would be the fate of the crop they had produced.

Every reference to cotton reminds me of a cotton-cultivating farmer a few kilometres from Multan, the country's main cotton centre whom I met a few years back. He had told me that it was more than three years since he had a new pair of clothes. This is the state of affairs in some other areas of agriculture. Livestock, that sustains leather-based exports of Pakistan, is treated with similar disdain by all the concerned.

The Minfal should actually be concentrating on research and providing research to farmers for boosting crops. Its research organizations are currently more of academic nature and their work is either not tested in the fields or continues endlessly without benefiting the country in any way.

Further, the attention should be on crops that go by default at present but are badly needed by the country to reduce foreign exchange spending in areas like edible oils. No target has been fixed for edible oil crops. They are the ones where targets are really important and incentives should be offered to farmers to cut down dependence on imports.

Only provinces are in a position to take agronomic practices into account, survey lands on the basis of their quality and suitability for specific crops, identify needs of farmers such as farm-to-market roads, transportation of their produce, particularly perishable commodities, openings for marketing produce on fair terms, availability of seed, fertilizers, technologies and methods currently weighed or harnessed for improving yields and enhancing the sector's efficiency.

Provincial governments tend to leave most of these areas either unattended or attend in a cursory manner because of the presence of the federal authorities. The result is negative deals for farmers who are the people that run the agriculture sector and a generally stagnant situation in the fields.

Things are likely to improve if matters are left to provincial authorities because that would make for direct communications between the farmers and the government and force the administration to be earnestly and instantly more responsive.

The federal agriculture authorities would be making a positive contribution if they kept a vigilant eye on the timely and needed availability of pesticides and fertilizers; their quality should be the problem of provinces. Further, it is desirable that production of both these vital components of agriculture is promoted in the country instead of reliance on imports that are geared for profiteering instead of serving the sector.

At this point in time, the federal government looks more of a parasite of provinces in the agriculture sector whereas it is required to provide its support and sustenance.

The government wants, and believes with all sincerity, the agriculture sector to be more productive but that is unlikely to happen unless the roles of centre and provinces are re-defined and aligned with the interests of farmers.