Agriculture has commanded great priority at the rhetorical level but in actual practice, particularly at the time of resource allocation (four per cent of the total financial investment); it is discriminated against and under estimated.

The economists, right from the beginning have favoured industrial development without giving a careful thought to the availability of raw material, trained manpower, efficient infrastructure and market competition. They have strongly advocated the agriculture economy to be a weak economy because of its vulnerability to natural calamities and internal and external competition.

Even after 50 years of experience, experts today prefer industrial development. During resource allocation, this particularly influences the fixation of goals and priorities of the socioeconomic development by putting on top the energy, infrastructure development and communication.

This mindset has created a bureaucratic central system of planning and development with the corresponding units being set up at provincial levels to bring cohesion and integration in policy matters and executing procedures. This authoritative and bureaucratic approach has resulted into designing lengthy and cumbersome procedures for the approval, implementation and evaluation of a development project. A series of the Planning Commission Performance PC-I to PC-V are designed for such purpose.

The PC-I has become the standard Performa for designing a scheme and seeking its approval through various prescribed forums. Its lengthy and difficult procedure is an uphill task to convince each forum about the merits of a scheme. Mostly, a project is never approved in its original form. If approved, the project then is either changed or mutilated. To fill up deficiencies, a supplementary or revised PC-I is prepared for approval from the relevant forums. After getting an approval, comes the question of funds which are never released on time. Utilization of the authorized funds on time and as per objective of the project is more difficult due to some rigid controls. Most short-term and long-term programmes are donor-assisted and depend on external resources. The donor usually brings his own perspective, priorities, conditions and limitations.

In regard to an agriculture project, involvement of farmers and actual stake holders are minimal in fixing priorities and also during resource allocation. The main development strategy is the project approach while, the infrastructure development and community participation for a sustainable growth comes afterwards. The NGOs’ role though is expensive and specific, but they play an important role in stimulating the development process through community participation of local populations. The frequent changes in the governments have created distortions in priorities and allocations of funds in the Annual Development Programmes.

Such ineffective approaches and poor governance, particularly the absence of an effective monitoring and evaluating system, has made it impossible to achieve full utilization of the available resources. At the macro level there has been some progress but the benefits of development could not trickle down which is constantly providing an impetus to the poverty level. It has risen from 25 per cent in early years to 38 per cent in 2005. Despite resource constraints, inconsistency in national policies, political interventions and poor governance, the planning and development activities have been successful in generating significant gain in some areas which can form the guidelines. There is a long list of achievements but here the outstanding ones are briefly mentioned.

* In early five-year plans, institutions like Wapda, the PIDC, and the ADC were created; departments were reorganized; and the basic land reforms introduced.

* There were fluctuations in agriculture growth rates. However, on an average four per cent growth rate was achieved which was higher than the annual population growth.

* The introduction of high yielding varieties, modern inputs and appropriate technologies effectuated three to four fold increase in the per hectare yield of wheat, rice, cotton and sugarcane. This was more than what was achieved in early years thus reducing the production gap, nearing towards the self-sufficiency in food.

* The use of fertilizer was increased from 2kg per hectare in 1950 to 140kg in 2003. Use of quality seed has gone up to 30 per cent and plant protection to 12-51 per cent - mostly for high value crops like cotton, tobacco and horticultural crops.

* Water availability had improved from 60MAF in 1947 to 106MAF after the construction of dams, irrigation canals and tubewells. In addition, water loss at farm level too, was reduced with the construction of Pucca water courses and improved management practices.

* The introduction of mechanized farming by tractors and machineries against the fear of replacement of bullocks and labour for small farmers was another achievement.

* In early years there were no loaning institutions but with the establishment of the ZTBL (formerly, the ADBP) and the initiatives taken by commercial banks the dispersal of loan had increased to Rs60 billion.

* Research and Extension System were reorganized. The system had successfully released over 200 improved varieties of crops with a technological breakthrough in boosting the farm productivity with about six agricultural universities imparting farm education.

Current situation:

* The population growth is still high at 2.90 per cent, whereas the growth of agriculture is almost stagnant. At least growth rate of five per cent is required to meet the diversified requirements of food, feed and raw material. Per hectare yields are still low as compared to world standards.

* There are big production gaps. The yield potentials of improved varieties are utilized by up to 36 per cent. Food security, therefore, is very fragile. An efficient inputs/ supplies and farm services system is almost absent.

* Marketing is still the weakest link in agriculture. With the enforcement of the WTO standards, the world markets are going to be highly competitive.

* Rural economy is not diversified. Hence, no new job opportunities and socio-economic facilities are available for the farmer to raise his income. In such a situation, the poverty level has increased to 38 per cent against 25 per cent in the early years. Construction of new dams has been delayed. There are great seepage losses in canal and water courses in the absence of an efficient water drainage system.

* Due to large-scale migration of rural population to towns and the construction of motorways and housing colonies, the land and water resources are shrinking. In future water availability will be a serious problem.

* Environmental degradation and ecological erosion are also great challenges which are to be tackled for conserving valuable natural resources for the sustainable use.

Proposed strategies and approaches:

After a critical review of the current scenario and benefiting from the wisdom contained in the reports of previous commissions and enquiry committees, strategies and approaches are proposed as under:

* National and provincial goals and priorities of development should be derived keeping in view the needs of people.

* Land reforms should be implemented to provide access to land and other resources to actual tillers and to enforce cultivator ownership for enabling them to make their own decisions/choices for adopting appropriate technologies.

* Governance reforms are must. Planning and development procedures should be simplified and rationalized.

Bureaucracy/management should be oriented towards development instead of applying rigid control for discouraging genuine expenditure and promoting unnecessary savings. Reliance on local resources and technical manpower should be encouraged. There should be minimum possible dependence on foreign resources.

* Agriculture cannot be commercialized and progressively sustained without active involvement of the private sector. Participation of the NGOs and corporate bodies should be encouraged in commercializing agriculture.

* Agriculture is the main engine for sustainable economic growth. Nevertheless agricultural and industrial growth is interdependent. A balanced growth of agricultural and industrial sectors is to be achieved with no biased discrimination after understanding the real situation on the ground. Multi-dimensional strategies and approaches involving all agencies and stakeholders should be adopted for a balanced and sustainable development. Main thrusts under these approaches should be:

i. Consolidating and sustaining the gains already achieved and further extending these benefits to other areas. Equally important is generating new gains through diversified economic activities and value addition of farm produce for better return. A paradigm shift from sustenance farming to commercial farming is essential.

ii. An efficient inputs/outputs management system in line with the actual demands and capabilities of growers with an attractive pricing structure and market interventions should be established. This will stimulate farmers to adopt modern farming practices to narrow the yield gaps and to move toward profitable agri-business.

iii. There should be a well-targeted land improvement programme through the control of water-logging and salinity, better drainage system and improved water harvesting and irrigation practices. Deteriorating soil base should be improved to ensure desired enhancement in productivity level.

iv. Diversified farming systems for increased economic and ecological gains should be developed and adopted.

v. Research, extension and education system should be strengthened to cash the current research findings. New knowledge and technologies should be generated.

vi. A neutral authority to enforce quality and control malpractices should be established keeping in view the WTO specifications. A commission for disaster management should also be set up.