The revelation of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in its annual report of 2002-03 that the incidence of poverty in the country has risen from 20 to 33 per cent has exposed to criticism the much-lauded economic reforms of the last four years.

This unprecedented rise in poverty can largely be attributed solely to the bad governance and policies that have been pursued over the last few years. The most dismal feature of the SBP's report is that it has dampened all hopes of poverty alleviation in the near future by stating that reversal of this trend cannot take place until the country has a sustained growth rate of 6 per cent over the next five years and pro-poor policy interventions are faithfully implemented.

It is therefore imperative to have realistic expectations rather than to hang on to false pretensions to expect an accelerated fall in the incidence of poverty in the country in the near future.

Poverty alleviation has always been on the top of agenda of all our successive governments. But, unfortunately, none of the governments was able to achieve its targets.

This implies that their targets were not only unrealistic but policies were wrong and efforts misdirected.

It is estimated that over 50 million people in Pakistan live below the poverty line. The poverty is measured in several ways. The calorie-based approach defines poverty line, as the maximum income level required to achieve basic nutrition (calorie-intake) per person.

The basic need approach defines poverty line in term of minimum expenditure required to achieve a basket of needs consisting food, clothing, housing, health, education and transportation. Many international development organizations use an absolute concept of poverty, which has been defined as an income of one US dollar per day per person.

The poverty line in Pakistan is however derived on the basis of income, which can provide daily intake of 2250 calories per person (2450 calories per adult equivalent in rural areas and 2150 in urban areas).

However irrespective of how one may wish to define and understand poverty, it can be assumed that more than one-third of our population earns barely enough for their survival, let alone adequate food security.

The reason that why poverty alleviation programmes in our country didn't succeed is that these programmes were misconceived and misdirected. Past experiences have shown that pumping of funds merely into social sector for poverty reduction has not produced any result.

We have spent billions of rupees earlier in the Social Action, Khushhal Pakistan and Tameer-e-Pakistan programmes. These programmes were also designed to improve education, health, water supply and sanitation. Physical surveys for evaluating all these programmes reveal extremely disappointing results.

The interventions of past and present programmes of poverty alleviation are part of social development and have nothing to do with poverty reduction. Social development, of course, has its own importance in the society but really it's a secondary issue.

The primary issue of our country is the poverty alleviation, which will never be resolved so long as we continue to neglect agriculture in our development priorities. Without alleviating poverty social action programmes will not bear any fruit, as we have been experiencing since last many years.

In fact social development schemes can prosper only after the active participation of the community. We can't expect that a poverty-ridden society will participate in such programmes. The answer of the failure of all such programmes in rural areas lies in this very fact.

Therefore for making any social development programme a success we should focus first on poverty reduction and it must come through agricultural development not by injecting funds in the social sector for providing basic amenities.

It is a fact that no poverty alleviation programme will succeed unless it is not linked with the agricultural development because over 70 per cent of our population lives in rural areas of which nearly half is poverty-stricken.

Therefore we can say that by developing agriculture we will not only achieve the targets of poverty alleviation alone but rural development as well.

One-fourth of our GDP originates from agriculture. It employs 44 per cent work-force and contributes substantially to export earnings. Therefore, what happens to agriculture is bound to have a substantial impact on the growth of the overall economy.

Over the years poverty has also find its roots in our urban areas as well particularly in urban slums. The reason for these un-regularised human settlements irk the urban areas is also that we are not paying due attention to our rural areas development and agriculture.

Lack of employment and income opportunities force people to leave rural areas and end up in urban slums. It has been well demonstrated that deep and widespread poverty in rural areas is a major cause for growing slums in the cities.

Properly conceived policies for the development of the agricultural sector could alleviate poverty through improvements in the productivity of small farmers and by creating employment opportunities for landless peasants.

The increased productivity, of the agricultural sector could also stem the tide of rural-urban migration, which can help in alleviating urban poverty.

Agricultural development is critical to poverty reduction and growth. A national water policy, currently under preparation, will contribute to the efficient use of water in agriculture, and, other sectors, while ensuring that the poor have equitable access.

Therefore accelerated public investments are needed to facilitate agricultural and rural growth through:

1. high-yielding and pest-resistant crop varieties and improved livestock;

2. environment-friendly production technology and water management systems;

3. reliable and timely access to agricultural inputs and the credit;

4. strong extension services and technical assistance to the farmers;

5. improved rural infrastructure and effective markets; A large number of our poverty ridden population reside in areas with high risk of environmental degradation.

The low priority given to develop appropriate technology for these areas in the past is a major reason for the current rapid degradation of natural resources and high level of poverty.

In addition to assuring sufficient research investment in high potential areas, much more research must be directed to the development of appropriate technology for less-favoured areas like Rod-Kohi, desert and coastal zones.

Research and technology alone will not drive agricultural growth. The interaction between technology and policy is critical. The full and beneficial effects of agricultural research and technological change will materialize only if government policies are appropriate.

Unless concerted action is taken now, poverty is not expected to diminish much in the near future. Agriculture must be in the forefront of the national agenda to eradicate poverty. Failure to significantly expand investment in agricultural development will male poverty eradication an elusive goal at the onset of this new millennium.

Agriculture and poverty has a close linkage. When practised at subsistence level, agriculture only provides essential food. When activities are expanded to address the market, all types of cash crops take on greater significance. They require inputs of the labour from outside the farm household especially landless people.

Diversification, processing and specific post-harvest processes add value to the agriculture produce and this in turn can have favourable impact on the development of small economic cycle in the cropping area.

The availability of food, jobs and income opportunities therefore depend directly on the development of agricultural sector. Only the lasting and diversified development and conservation of the potential of natural areas will ensure that rural areas remain attractive as living and working locations and allow a widely effective reduction of poverty.

The challenge to reduce poverty is tremendous. But if we don't succeed in solving this problem now it will endanger our own future. Sustainable development starts with a sustainable agricultural sector.

Sustainable agriculture is therefore the cornerstone to safeguard our common future. We must dedicate ourselves' to achieve the vision of a poverty frees country.

This is no utopian dream. To achieve our goal, we must move strongly and swiftly from vision to action. We have the road map, the resources to go on the road from poverty to prosperity. The only thing lacking is will.