WHAT had started with decisions to import wheat and sugar to meet domestic needs and shortfall in domestic production and an effort to bring down prices of certain food items seems to have become a mind boggling policy of import of agriculture sector items.

The government announced zero rate import duty for a number of agriculture products a few weeks back. Earlier, wheat and sugar were to be imported to meet domestic needs, although in the case of the later, there wasn’t any concrete reason while wheat is sufficient if one goes by the production figures provided by the government plus previous stock.

One felt that the government was either being over cautious and importing wheat because its shortage can have political fall out or that officials had come up with yield statistics to save face and stick to what they had been declaring all through the time wheat was in the fields.

Next came imports from India that were not needed because firstly, domestic produce and supplies were sufficient and secondly, even such officials as may be handling agriculture products without having any idea of what they were doing would know that prices of domestically produced commodities were in no way unnatural because of inflation, rising cost of production and ever increasing price of fuel.

The decisions were generally seen to be the official way of serving the financial interests of individuals and groups who were either delivering politically or were considered useful by the government for some other reasons. This isn’t how a government that vows to combat corruption and declares that it had zero tolerance for corruption, functions but then one understands that compromises are made to ensure certain ends.

So far, so bad because all the decisions were contrary to the growth of the agriculture sector and instead of promoting its interests as pledged by policy makers that matter, they were undermining the sector. But, nothing could be as devastating as placing almost the entire range of the sector’s products on zero rate import duty.

One of the more productive, although badly neglected sector is livestock. There have been complaints against high price of meat but there is nothing new to it and in any case, the segment of the populace that cannot afford to purchase meat at current local prices would find the cost of imported meat equally beyond their resources. Importing meat in any form is consequently not a rewarding deal for a large percentage of the population.

But a CBR notification towards the end of July placed ‘live buffaloes, cows, camels, sheep, goats, halal meat of bovine animals and fresh chilled or frozen meat’ in its zero duty list. What promoted the government to do that is difficult to understand. There is no explanation because these items are available in sufficient quantity and their imports can only contribute towards undermining their productivity in the country.

Potatoes, tomatoes, onion, garlic and pulses are also on the CBR list. The first four items were already being imported from India and there has been considerable opposition to this decision from various organizations of the farming sector that have argued that imports are against the interests of Pakistan’s agriculture.

The government had given the impression that the decision was linked with a specific end which was controlling rising prices of these items. This did not convince any one but as the move was taken as a one time import, the sector felt that there would be no further attack on it. But the CBR notification puts a different context to the proceedings.

It now seems that the government has adopted their regular import as a matter of policy. One can see little reward for the economy or consumers in this policy and as far as the agriculture sector is concerned, it is certain to be negatively affected by the notification. Their regular imports are bound to discourage farmers from producing these items.

Another item in the list is pulses. If the quantity of pulse locally produced is insufficient to meet domestic consumption, that should be a matter of concern for the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and provincial agriculture departments. They should create conditions favourable to their wider and higher production and help farmers in marketing their produce in a manner that gives them just returns for their efforts without putting consumers under extra pressure.

Imports can only further scuttle their production because local farmers are in no position to compete with imports that may be designed to capture Pakistan’s market with low prices and continue supplying them on rates at which our farmers cannot afford to sell. The ultimate result would be that farmers producing pulses would leave the field open for imports for economic reasons.

Seeds for some crops have also been included in the zero duty notification. The seed industry of Pakistan has admittedly not grown so that it can underwrite requirements of seeds in all crops.

However, Punjab’s seed corporation and the dormant seed corporation of Sindh is reportedly being revived. Punjab has been concentrating on seed for major crops and competing with the private sector. The purpose of public sector organizations has to be filling vacant slots and thus playing their role in national progress. The seed corporations should be asked to fill blanks in their sector rather that trying to prove that they can compete with private sector seed firms.

What the government needs to do is to help farmers boost products and reduce the cost of inputs so that prices of local products remain within the reach of the common consumer instead of controlling prices through imports that can only have a negative impact in the long run.

Further, shortages of many items, particularly livestock and edible oils tend to be high because of smuggling. That end needs to be tied if consumers are to be provided relief. The policy of zero duty imports of many commodities produced by the agriculture sector is a short term measure with built in disaster for the agriculture sector which is the base of Pakistan’s economy.