PESHAWAR: Despite having vast tracts of fertile land, conducive climate and a huge potential for hydel-power generation, the North West Frontier Province is self-sufficient in terms of neither food nor power. The accusing finger is generally and rightly pointed towards a lack of proper understanding of the issues that translates into policies that fail to deliver.

Agriculturist Ikramullah Khan blames past governments for not having brought in modern technology to increase the per-acre yield. Proper growth in the agriculture sector, he says, can play a key role in the province’s development and poverty reduction.

On its part, the business community is hopeful that the new government will overcome the situation through better planning. Former president of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SCCI) Ghulam Sarwar Khan Mohmand is of the opinion that the government should draw a 15-year strategy to bring marked development in agriculture and energy sectors.

“It is only through better planning that we can exploit all the resources that we have in the province,” he says, adding that the agriculture sector can provide the base for industrial advancement as well.

“Instead of wasting time and resources on controversial projects, the government can go for small dams at undisputed and technically appropriate sites,” he suggests.

Many in the business community say that the sky-rocketing prices of food and fuel should be seen in the global context. Muhammad Nauman Wazir, a local business community representative, says that higher growth rate in India and China, draught in Australia and the trend towards bio-fuel have together caused the prices of food items to rise globally. He wants the government to categorically oppose the production of bio-fuel to bring down the prices of food stuff in the international market.

On the domestic front, he wants subsidy on wheat to be increased, ban on rice export, and serious steps to stop commodity smuggling to Afghanistan.

Provincial Agriculture Minister Arbab Ayub Jan, however, believes that by investing in the irrigation sector, the NWFP can not only become self-sufficient in food, but will also fulfill the needs of the Afghans.