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May 26, 2002
REVIEW: On the slide
AGRICULTURE in Pakistan generally, and in Sindh particularly, has been the victim of calculated official indifference and neglect. As a result, over the past 55 years this sector, which provides jobs and sustenance to 60 per cent of the population, has been on the slide. Policy makers have adopted development and mechanization measures without caring how they would affect this sector and the national economy.
The situation has continued to deteriorate until the recent water crisis, soil degradation and input prices made agriculture for small and medium farmers almost economically unviable. Although committees and task forces were constituted at different times to study specific problems and suggest remedial measures, These measures were neither neutral and sectorally integrated nor were they implemented with full force. Sindh has suffered far more than any other province, the reason being the alienation between the urban decision - makers and their rural counterparts. The urban-centred administration is totally ignorant of and indifferent to the problems of the rural populace.
It is against this backdrop, that the Centre for Information and Research of the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) constituted a committee of researchers to study the problems of agriculture in Sindh, analyze the issues and suggest options. These researchers prepared an initial draft which was discussed at a seminar where all the stakeholders provided useful inputs. The fruit of this elaborate labour is here in the form of the book under review. The eight chapters of which deal with the problems of land degradation, water shortage, input-output markets, taxation, land and labour (tenure system), livestock and fisheries and recommendations. Important issues are highlighted in 21 boxes. The introduction drives home the point that agriculture in Sindh “is no more economically viable”. This may seem too sweeping a statement but it is true in the sense that at present productivity level is so low that if the services of all factors involved in production are adequately remunerated the return may not suffice. Except for inputs from large landowners, and traders all other factors are inadequately compensated. Be it the tenants’ wage, labour, or government as a provider of service, heavy subsidies are needed to make agriculture viable. The reason for this state of affairs is the social structure of rural society and the big landlords’ stranglehold on land-related administration and the law enforcement agencies. This aspect receives casual treatment in the Report.
Nevertheless the importance of the Report lies in the fact that most of the problems of the agricultural sector are put together at one place and various options to deal with them have been compiled under one title. In some cases, basic data have also been provided by the researchers. Some of the facts, otherwise lying buried in official files, are a reason of great concern. For example, Sindh has three times more waterlogged hectarage (0-5 feet water table) than Punjab.
Only 30 per cent of the irrigation water is productively utilized and 70 per cent is wasted at various stages of conveyance. These are known facts but nothing is being done to address this scenario. Several drainage schemes are found to be of no use even though an expenditure of billions of rupees has been incurred on them over the decades. Some of these have proved to be extremely harmful.
The chapter on water shortage traces the history of the controversy between the lower and upper riparians over the sharing of the water of the Indus River System since 1901. Sindh has complained that Punjab does not release the full share of its water when it needs it most. The veracity of these charges however, has not been verified. No non-partisan body has ever been set up to unveil the real situation. In view of this it is evident that Wapda and the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) have not been working the water accords transparently as a result of which other provinces fail to trust Punjab. Before any workable solution is put in place, this trust needs to be restored. The authors of the Report seem to have fallen prey to the trap laid by the ruling coterie of big landlords and their scions entrenched in the bureaucracy. They confuse tax on personal income from agriculture with the taxes and users charges on the sector as a whole. By listing 11 taxes that are paid by different groups of farmers, the Report leaves the impression that all farmers are heavily taxed.
Accuracy demands that the total collection from all these taxes and charges were tabulated and compared with the collections and contribution to GDP from other economic sectors. It is known that land revenue has been abolished, ushr is dormant and water rates do not even meet the cost of running the irrigation system, what to say of repair and improvements.
Agricultural income tax yields a paltry sum of a few millions. It is true that proliferation of taxes raises the burden disproportionately because of the extortion the collector claims. The suggestion that the number of taxes should be reduced, each tax be formally assessed and notified to the assessees and recovery of taxes be made through deposit in banks and not through tapedars is most appropriate. It will save farmers the harassment and extortion they are traditionally subjected to.
The chapter on land and labour discusses the land tenure system in some detail. There are four types of tenure that operate in the province. The most potent and widely used tool of the landlords’ oppression is the loan which they advance to their tenants to enable them to pay for the inputs and survive. On that they charge an interest rate of over 100 per cent annually. That is why a tenant who is once caught in the web of debt can never set himself free. The government has hardly provided any relief for farmers in terms of credit. Land tenure is a major factor contributing to low productivity.
The era of land reform seems to have ended, as the cause is no more advocated by any section of the society. In the present circumstances, progressive urban and rural forces need to come together to ensure that the legally provided tenancy rights are enforced, the land ownership and tenancy record are correctly maintained and government land is distributed among genuine landless peasants.
The Report states that in the last ten years 5.5 million acres were released for disposal in Kotri, Sukkur and Guddu barrage command areas most of which were given to outsiders under various quotas. Landless peasants received only two per cent or 0.1 million acres out of the 5.5 million acres. This policy needs to be revised and looked into.
The editorial quality of the Report leaves much to be desired. As one does expect more from a publication of an academic institution such as SZABIST.
Report on agriculture in Sindh: issues and options
Edited by Prof Muhammad Ali Sheikh
SZABIST Centre for Information and Research, 4th Floor, Shaikh Sultan Trust Building, #2, Beaumont Road, Civil Line, Karachi-75530
Tal: 021-5218095.
Email: cir@szabist.edu.pk and
cir@cyber.net.pk
213pp. Price not stated
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