AS the Punjab government prepares the third budget of its current tenure, it seems to have gotten its focus right.

As the current thinking and reports from official circles suggest, the budgetary proposals would be riveted on four areas: revamping extension services, seed replacement, water efficiency and farm-mechanisation.

Of all these areas, the extension service has been the weakest link in the agriculture production chain and has drawn lot of criticism in the past. The official preference to strengthen it can only be welcomed.

According to the proposed revamping plan, more than 700 field officers would be recruited during the next year. These posts have been lying vacant for the last 10-15 years and led to the breaking down of contact between the farmers and the extension men — with a huge cost for productivity, farm-mechanisation and soil health.

The next obvious step would be to train the staff and refresh the knowledge base of those who are already in the field but have been assigned other temporary duties. The Punjab agriculture department has suggested reactivating its tehsil-level training centres and allocating the required amount of money for it.

A quick response force is also on the cards, which would be collecting 4m soil samples from all 13 ecological zones in the province and suggest corrective measures; it would also be in-charge of the soil’s health. This force would reportedly be equipped with all the required gadgetry and vehicles (from motorcycles to jeeps) to reach every corner of their area of operation.

Punjab wants to shift its focus away from tractors, which have so far been the main beneficiary of all its subsidy regimes. It may include more implements in the subsidy-deserving list this year

There are different figures for the agriculture development budget doing the round in the province, with some going even up to Rs20bn for the year. However, officials think it may fall between Rs8-13bn. Even this figure, if allocated and more crucially spent, would represent a 300-500pc increase over the actual spending in the last seven years of the PML-N’s government in Punjab.

On the basis of this new field force, the government also plans to execute one of the largest seed replacement programmes. Seed for four acres of land would be provided for free to progressive growers in each village. They, in turn, would sell to their neighbouring farmers at the cost of the crop, not seed. Punjab thinks it needs to replace the wheat seed more urgently because all the old seed varieties have become susceptible to rust and other diseases.

Meanwhile, sugarcane would be the next target, and other crops would follow. On the basis of soil sampling, a balanced use of fertiliser would be promoted through a subsidy package so that the province can fully capitalise on the potential of replaced seed and also an upgraded general level of productivity.

The government expects that all of this would bring a paradigm shift in agriculture in the province.

The Punjab government certainly deserves appreciation for this. But there is a need for some caution until the field force is formed and is actually spared to serve the agriculture sector, rather than being used for fire-fighting against a host of other issue, like during the polio drops campaign, anti-dengue drive or some other special initiative of the province’s chief executive.

Another ongoing initiative that Punjab wants to supplement is the lining of water courses. Under World Bank funding, farmers have the option of brick lining 30pc of the total length of their water courses.

Punjab plans to increase this percentage to 50pc by contributing some of its own funds. It has already undertaken a huge programme to introduce high efficiency irrigation systems in the province. With water courses becoming more efficient, the situation should improve for the better.

Already declared the Olive and Grapes Valley, the Potohar region — the barani belt of the province — would continue to draw attention and money in this budget as well. The government plans to import nurseries of both these fruits and distribute them for free among farmers in the area.

The Punjab irrigation department is slated to build small dams and ensure the supply of water to these samplings. The project has covered a substantial journey and would continue its march with more money and political will behind it.

In order to provide knowledge-support for all these programmes, Punjab also plans to substantially increase its spending on research — an area that has remained relatively neglected over the past many decades.

While it has not taken account of what it has already spent on different projects and the outcome they yielded, the government wants to pour more money into ‘well-directed research proposals’.

Apart from research, Punjab also wants to shift its focus away from tractors, which have so far been the main beneficiary of all its subsidy regimes. It may include more implements in the subsidy-deserving list this year and actively pursue them.

That is how officials paint the budgetary picture at this stage. One hopes that all these plans will find a space in the final document and that the money will not be squeezed out of them mid-way.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, June 8th, 2015

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