Investment in agriculture to restore people’s confidence
By Nadeem Saeed
BALOCHISTAN covers almost 44 per cent of Pakistan’s land mass, but with a population density of hardly 20 persons per square kilometre against the country’s 164 per square kilometres. Two-thirds of the labour force in the province is employed by the agriculture sector, and it accounts for half of the province’s domestic production, but the area under the plough is just six per cent. Low precipitation, dry highlands, scarcity of irrigation water and poor infrastructure (roads, markets, electricity, etc) have made the agriculture sector in Balochistan progress at a snail pace. The tribal system coupled with their nomadic life keep the Baloch people away from modern sustainable agriculture. Herd-keeping (goats and sheep) remains the most favoured economic activity of the pastoral communities of the province.
Of the total cultivated area of 2.05m hectares in the province, only 0.48m hectares is irrigated through canals and that too mainly in the Naseerabad division (84 per cent) followed by the Kalat and Sibi divisions. Thus, the rest of the province has to rely on rains and tube-wells. A provincial agriculture department report says that 4.847m hectares of cultivable land in Balochistan cannot be brought under cultivation mainly because of the non-availability of water.
However, despite all these constraints the province is the single largest contributor to the national production of apples, dates, grapes, pomegranates, almonds and peaches. In recent years, farmers in the Naseerabad, Sibi, Kohlu and Barkhan districts have also started cotton cultivation and are picking a reasonably good crop, that too by applying a minimum of insecticides as compared to the cotton growers of Punjab and Sindh.
Experts forecast healthy prospects for cotton cultivation in the province, especially in the areas bordering Punjab and Sindh. Similarly, sustainable agriculture can be promoted in the coastal areas of Kech, Makran and Gawadar with the help of saline and desalinated water as has been done in many Gulf countries.
As the fertility of the lands in Balochistan is exploited less as compared to the agriculture-rich areas of the country, the yield per hectare in the province is better in several crops. However, fragmentation of landholdings and lack of cooperative culture are impediments hampering mechanization and modernization in agriculture.
Analysts say that the economic policymakers will have to prepare a comprehensive plan for investment in the agriculture sector of Balochistan because only this will restore confidence in the mega development plans of the government in the province. “About 80 per cent of the province’s population lives in the rural areas earning a livelihood through agriculture in one way or another,” they point out.
Better access to agricultural credit for both production and development purposes, setting up of a food processing industry in the horticulture-rich areas, construction of farm-to-market roads and harnessing of the available water resources can bring about a radical change in the lives of the people living in the most backward province of the country.
According to a report, the available farm credit in Balochistan is Rs937 per hectare as compared to Rs3,978 in Sindh, Rs2,890 in Punjab and Rs1,458 in NWFP.
