A CRITICAL challenge currently faced by the government is how to minimise the cost of producing crops to make farming more profitable for growers.

Federal minister for food security Malik Sikander Hayat Bosan says his ministry is working on mechanisms to bring down the cost of production. One such mechanism could be reducing the prices of, or taxes on, agricultural inputs, which the farming community has been demanding for quiet long.

At present, the use of inputs — unaffordable for many — in the country is below the desired levels. Farming has become difficult and over 90pc of farmers are small landholders, possessing only about five acres of land. Often, they barely manage their livelihood.

Bosan says his ministry has proposed a cut in taxes on farm inputs, and it is now considering withdrawal of the 17pc general sales tax on fertiliser and other items. Other similar proposals could be a reduction in the price of diesel and continuation of annual raises in the support price for commodities like wheat, sugar and rice.

However, for small growers, the end-result of the whole exercise is often disappointing. Owing to the inefficiency and the uncaring attitude of the procurement centre staff, they feel compelled to sell their produce to middlemen at much lower prices, resulting in losses. A mechanism is required to protect this vulnerable segment of the community during the post-harvest season.

The food security ministry has proposed a cut in taxes on farm inputs, and is now considering withdrawal of the 17pc general sales tax on fertiliser and other items

Then, Pakistan’s agriculture also suffers from lower productivity compared to other countries in the region. There has been a nominal increase in the per-acre production of agricultural commodities over the years, and in some cases it has remained stagnant. The reasons are lack of innovation and failure to increase farm efficiency.

The country’s principal crop, wheat, has shown a declining trend in per-acre yield during the last four years, and the per-acre yield achieved in 2010 could not be reproduced in the next three years. The yield was 2,933kg in 2010-11, before dropping to 2,797kg in 2013-14.

Pakistan’s per-hectare wheat output is lower as compared to Bangladesh’s, India’s and China’s, even though in the 1960s, the yield in Pakistan was much higher than that in China and Bangladesh and slightly lower than that in India.

In 1980, the per-hectare yield of both China and Bangladesh was higher than that of India and Pakistan. The yield increased to 1,891kg per hectare in China, 1,889kg in Bangladesh, 1,568kg in Pakistan and 1,435kg in India.

However, in 2014, Pakistan was at the bottom again, as it’s per hectare wheat yield rose to 2,787kg — almost the same level that India had achieved 20 years ago, FAO statistics reveal.

Meanwhile, the area under wheat cultivation went up from 8.901m acres in 2010-11 to 9.039m acres in 2013-14. Keeping in view the fact that wheat is a staple food for millions, neither the government nor the private sector has made any convincing efforts to improve its yield.

The country has not developed any new wheat varieties in the last 30 years. The growers, one may note, are looked after well in India and China through facilitation and subsidies, while their counterparts in Pakistan are largely left alone to fend for themselves.

The country is unlikely to achieve the 3.3pc growth rate target set for the current fiscal year. The target envisaged 1.5pc contribution from important crops, 4.5pc from other crops, 5pc from cotton ginned and 3.8pc from livestock.

The food security minister, while speaking at a meeting of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, stated that while untimely rains have created issues at some locations, he was confident that the wheat target will be achieved.

According to officials, the government has set a target of 26.3m tonnes for wheat, 15m bales for cotton and 6.789m tonnes for rice. And the 65.5m-tonne sugarcane target for 2014-15 would witness a shortfall of 2.3pc. The country has achieved the revised cotton target of 13.48m bales for the outgoing season 2014-15, but will fall short of the original target of 15.1m bales.

Gram is the largest rabi pulse crop, accounting for 76pc of the total production of pulses in the country, and occupies about 5pc of the cropped area. Punjab accounts for over 80pc of the overall production of the crop.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, April 20th , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play