IN Sindh’s budget FY16, the agriculture sector has gotten little attention both in terms of current and development spending.

The revenue expenditure of agriculture department has been increased by 6pc (or less than Rs300m) to Rs5.5bn. Similarly, allocation under annual development plan has also been raised less than 2.5pc (or by just Rs100m) to Rs4.5bn, the budget documents reveal. And, out of the development allocation, around Rs4bn have been earmarked for ongoing schemes and a little more than Rs0.5bn for the new projects.

“The largest chunk of current expenses will be spent on non-core heads like salaries of employees and little will be available for spending on actual agricultural promotion,” admits a senior official of Sindh agriculture department without elaborating. This means more reliance on development spending for agri growth where not even Rs1bn have been allocated for fresh schemes.

That shows how much importance has been given to agricultural sector in the new budget. But since a sizable amount (about Rs4bn) has been earmarked for ongoing schemes, and those schemes cover a variety of areas including crop farming, livestock breeding and fisheries and forestry, one can hope that, on balance, agriculture would not suffer so much from sheer paucity of funds.

Focus on the implementation of ongoing schemes, however, acquires importance from the point of view of completing projects on schedule.

Farmers point out that the construction of concrete and steel silos in the province, under an IFC-supported public-private partnership project, had run into snags, and the budget is silent on its status

Sindh’s agri budget for FY16 has grossly disappointed the farming community as it not only represents a very nominal growth in spending but stands nowhere in comparison to Punjab’s budget that allocates a sizeable chunk of its resources to improving agriculture. In Sindh, a mere increase of less than Rs400m in current and development spending on agriculture is too little to make an impact either on farming, livestock, poultry or fisheries or on agricultural extension services.

But Sindh officials justify low budgetary allocation, saying that two huge World Bank-funded projects have already covered many areas of agricultural productivity. Provincial Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his budget speech, said the five-year Sindh Agriculture Growth Project, initiated in FY15, would improve agricultural productivity and ensure enhanced access of small and medium producers to important commodity value chains.

He also mentioned that under phase I of the Sindh Irrigated Productivity Enhancement Programme, that begins in FY16, 5,500 water courses would be improved and high efficiency irrigation system would be installed on 14,267 hectares of land.

Under the new year’s budget, some allocations have been made for providing subsidy to farmers for purchase of tractors and other machinery and for purchase of certified seeds. But that does not suffice the needs of the farming community of the province.

For last few years, Sindh’s cotton, rice and sugarcane production has shown a rising trend but farmers lament that no new scheme was announced in FY16 budget for supporting these key crops.

A meat processing plant being established in Bhambore has made some progress but without any substantial fresh allocation for this project; its operational efficacy may be compromised. Similarly, in the absence of any major initiative for fisheries’ sector, fishermen of the province may find it difficult to increase fish catch, improve the quality of fish processing and enter new seafood markets with confidence.

Farmers also point out that the construction of concrete and steel silos in the province, under an IFC-supported public-private partnership project, had run into snags and the budget was silent on its status.

Officials say this, and several other projects being run with foreign support are at various stages of completion. These were not covered in the finance minister’s budget speech as they were out of the ambit of typical budgetary allocations. “But that doesn’t mean such projects have been shelved or are not being pursued,” says a senior official of provincial agriculture department. However, he, too, concedes that the new budget offers little in terms of new agricultural development schemes “because law and order, energy, infrastructure and social sectors consumed most of development resources.”

Sindh’s budget for this fiscal year offers subsidy and incentives on solar-powered tube wells which, according to farmers can be helpful in boosting crop production. But they feel that the authorities should have devised a plan to sell cheap electricity generated by large solar panels to clusters of ginneries. That would have solved ginneries’ power problems.

That, they think, was necessary to promote ginning in the province where cotton output is growing.

In fisheries sector, no big incentives have been offered for inland fish farming that holds promise for future growth due to increasingly high domestic demand for pond fish.

On balance, Sindh’s agri budget seems to be unimpressive and lacks in innovative thinking.

• Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, June 22nd, 2015*

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