In the sixth Pakistan-China Joint Cooperation Committee recently, Sindh got three projects included in the CPEC: the Keti Bunder port, the Karachi Circular Railway and the Dhabeji Special Economic Zone.

But the farm sector and food processing units are yet to feature in any CPEC programme, though the cooperation for agricultural development is one of the potential areas for inclusion in the project, according to the Planning Commission of Pakistan. Corporate farming is yet an area of possible cooperation, perhaps through joint ventures.

Some Sindh government representatives working on the CPEC projects admit that the agriculture sector does not feature anywhere in the federal government’s priority list.

The farm sector is yet to feature in any CPEC programme, though the cooperation for agricultural development is one of the potential areas for inclusion in the project

An official — who attended this joint committee meeting along with the Sindh chief minister in December 2016 — says around 50 MoUs have been signed for the development of infrastructure, energy, transport and the industrial sector; and perhaps one or two MoUs on research and development in the farm sector.

According to the Sindh Board of Investment Chairperson Ms Naheed Memon, the provincial agriculture, planning and development departments, public private partnership units (PPPU) and the SBI would have to work together to come up with something beneficial for the local agriculture sector and farming community.

She further said that she would also definitely be working to explore opportunities for this bilateral cooperation in the agriculture sector. “We can propose, to the federal government, projects for technological support or farm sector research etc. Value addition is an important area where we can take initiatives”

According to the SBI, some companies have shown an interest in setting up food processing units in the special economic zones (SEZ). Yusuf Sheikh, Khairpur SEZ’s focal person said that infrastructural development has been largely completed in the zone. That includes sewerage, road, water supply etc. However, Dhabeji SEZ, just initiated, would take time to become operational.

Farmers wonder why the provincial government is not coming up with some concrete proposals for the inclusion of agricultural projects in the CPEC.

Agriculture is plagued with issues like low farm productivity, low levels of investment and weak modernisation efforts.

Mahmood Nawaz Shah of the Sindh Abadgar Board suggests that institutions like the SBI should form stakeholder working groups to deliberate on issues that can be addressed under the CPEC.

He added that Chinese companies could be attracted in agro-based processing.

Eminent economist, Kaiser Bengali, analysing the CPEC says most of the observations in the project are made without any substance and groundwork. “To me, recent inclusion of projects like Keti Bunder has been done without homework”. He also feels that China is interested mainly in highways and the Gwadar port.

Referring to China’s investment in Africa’s farm sector, he said the Chinese bought their land to produce grain through their own labourers to feed their large population. “Therefore we need to be cautious whether the Chinese will be interested in any such agricultural projects in our country.”

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, January 30th, 2017