LAHORE: Following the Agriculture Transformation Plan (ATP) approved by Prime Minister Imran Khan, a committee constituted by the Ministry of Industries and Production (MoIP) has endorsed minimum specifications of 78 agriculture implements on the recommendations of experts.

The decision to endorse recommendations for declaring minimum specification of agriculture implements will increase productivity and exports besides ensuring uninterrupted supply of basic food items at an affordable price in the country, Dawn has learnt.

According to a document shared with the respective ministries in association with the Engineering Development Board (EDB), agriculture is the second largest sector of Pakistan economy after services sector. It contributes about 19.2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and accounts for half of employed labour force and is also the largest source of foreign exchange earnings. More than 65-70 per cent of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood.

Agricultural growth rate has been constrained by shrinking arable land, climate change, water shortages, and large-scale population and labour shift from rural to urban areas.

“The agriculture sector’s performance during 2020-21 broadly stands encouraging as it grows by 2.77 per cent against the target of 2.8 per cent but it has still potential to increase growth. Comparatively, with Kazakhstan, Bangladesh and India it is still low as evident while reviewing the World Bank Data,” the document mentions.

It says in a bid to increase agricultural productivity, exports and ensure uninterrupted supply of basic food items at affordable prices in the country, PM Imran Khan approved ATP submitted by the Ministry of National Food Security & Research (MoNFSR) with the objective to enhance national agricultural output and livelihood of farmers.

Under this plan, the provinces were assigned the task of re-tweaking of machinery given under National Agriculture Emergency Projects (NAEP).

After extensive stakeholders consultation and feedback including meetings with leading manufacturers of the implements representing all major clusters of the implements manufacturing across the country, the Ministry of Industries and Production (MoIP), which had a lead role under this plan, notified a Standards Development Committee (SDC) comprising the technical/industry experts to prescribe minimum workable standards.

The committee headed by the EDB CEO framed Terms of Reference to review the current implements plan and its re-tweaking to ensure maximum uptake. The committee’s mandate under the TORs was to review the existing standards developed by PSQCA and to prescribe minimum workable standards, develop specification of 43 implements prioritized by the MoNFS within 4 weeks particularly in the view of Weight, Size and Metallurgy of critical implement parts, develop warranty/bank guarantee mechanism, registration of manufacturers in association with the EDB under the plan and devise mechanism for testing prototype machines. The committee (SDC) further constituted its technical sub-committee (TSC) for a detailed review of the specifications of the implements.

“The SDC was initially assigned the task to determine minimum specifications of 58 agricultural implements. It held five meetings (during the months of August and September 2021) and after thorough review of the list of implements and recommendations of TSC, it endorsed and recommended minimum specifications of 58 implements,” reads the document.

It reveals that the SDC, on the request of Pakistan Agricultural Machinery & Implements Manufacturers Association (PAMIMA), also recommended the technical specifications of Paddy/Rice Thresher (7 ft). It, on the request of MNFS&R through the MoIP, also reviewed an additional list of 19 agricultural implements in 6th meeting and recommended their minimum specifications after evaluation of the TSC in 3rd meeting, both held on Nov 23.

On the other hand, the EDB’s Board of Management headed by chairman Almas Hyder has also endorsed decisions of the SDC to finalise and issue minimum specification of the agriculture implements.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2022