16 May 2004	Sunday	25 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

MULTAN: Mian Khizer Hayat Bhutta, owner of a mango orchard spreading over an area of 15 acres in village Khairpur Bhutta near Multan, says: "Income from farming hardly makes both ends meet, although the monetary value of my property runs into millions of rupees."

The scion of an educated and prominent family of the area, Mr Bhutta said his father was a progressive grower who had inherited 150 acres of agricultural land. To give his children the best education according to the standards of a rural middle class family, the elder Bhutta sent his four sons to a well-known public school in Abottabad.

And the expenses of the school and college education of the boys cost him 50 acres of his land. Later, he distributed the rest of the 100 acres among them so that they could start a life of their own and he himself opted for a secluded life.

Khizer said among his brothers only he decided to become a full-time farmer. He said his was one of the best-kept mango orchards in the area. He said the use of the modern techniques of plant protection and agronomic practices made this possible.

Married some eight years ago, and now a father of three, he said supporting life merely on agricultural income was very difficult. In his endeavour to lead a decent living, he had to sell 10 acres of his inherited land in the eight years of his family life.

He said his annual income from his now 15-acre-orchard ranged between Rs200,000 and Rs250,000, depending on the weather conditions, while his annual expenditure often exceeded Rs300,000. Khizer said that the middle class in rural Pakistan was reducing in number due to falling income.

This was especially tune, he said, for small and medium size farms since agriculture had become a capital-intensive venture. "My parents got me educated from reputed institutions, places where I can't afford to send my own children," he said, adding "I have enrolled my daughter in a mediocre private school in Multan city for a monthly fee of Rs800."

He said his brothers who abandoned the ancestral profession of farming to explore opportunities in business and corporate firms were much better off. "My wife used to ask me to stop farming and either start a business in Multan city or join a private firm like one of my younger brothers did." His younger brother, Mazhar, had joined a pharmaceutical firm few years ago as a sales promotion officer and now he is in a managerial position at another firm with an annual salary of more than Rs600,000.

This is not the case of just one middle class farmer since majority of the farmers with small or medium-sized farms in Pakistan are facing the same dilemma. High investment, low returns and fragmentation of land (owing to the hereditary system of property distribution) have caused most of rural families to experience falling incomes.

Khizer's is a family of five while an average rural family comprises eight persons. According to a study carried out by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, average income levels for the rural population are about 37 per cent lower than those for the the urban population. Disparities in average income levels for rural and urban populations are also reflected in the fact that the rural population is poorer than the urban ones.

According to an Asian Development Bank report on poverty assessment in Pakistan, about 40 per cent of the rural population is poor while incidence of poverty in the urban areas is 35 per cent. According to a report of the Water and Power Development Authority, as much as 45 per cent of the villages in the country have yet to get electricity. The government claims that the literacy rate in the country is about 50 per cent, 70 per cent in urban areas and 30 per cent for rural areas.

According to official data, 78 per cent of primary schools in rural areas have no electricity, 40 per cent have no drinking water and 60 per cent have no bathrooms. The same is the case with the middle, high and higher secondary schools in the rural areas.

Infant and mother mortality rates in rural Pakistan are also higher as compared to the urban areas. Untrained traditional midwives still play havoc with the lives of rural women in the absence of any effective pre or post natal health care network. This correspondent visited a number of BHUs (basic health units) and RHCs (rural health centres) in the villages near Multan and found most of them without doctors.

Even if there was any staff, the medicines were in short supply. For example, there were no antidotes to rabies or snake-bites, the two most common problems of rural areas. Consequently, the average death rate in rural Pakistan is higher (8.8pc) than it is in urban Pakistan (6.7pc).

According to the agricultural ministry, 90 per cent of the total cultivable land mass in the country is owned by small or medium-sized farmers with ownership ranging from one acre to 150 acres. Only 10 per cent of the cultivable land is with the 4.7 per cent of the farmers whose per capita landholdings are more than 150 acres. About 38 per cent of the total cultivable land in the country is owned by 35 per cent of the farmers whose per capita landholdings range between 12.5 acres and 50 acres.

Analysts say that the availability of proper facilities for healthcare, education and safe drinking water and building infrastructure like roads and providing public transport will not only improve the quality of life in rural Pakistan but will also help generate a great deal of economic activity. This will help reduce rampant poverty among the rural people folk and check migration to the urban areas.