One of the earliest suggestions of the military government was to bring prosperity to rural communities through land reforms. Consequently a ‘Land Review Committee’ was formed at the federal level for developing sustainable land reforms agenda for the consideration of the government.
But due to the powerful lobby of feudal lords no further action could be taken and finally Prime Minister Mir Zafrullah Jamali declared that land reforms would not be undertaken during his regime.
On the contrary, the government under the dictates of international financial bodies such as the World Bank and the IMF is considering to implement the corporate agriculture farming (CAF) in the country. According to this policy, local and foreign private and public sector companies will be allowed to take on lease or own land for CAF which will be provided an industrial status. The limit of minimum foreign investment will be $430,000. This limit has now also been removed and there will be no upper ceiling of land holding.
The agricultural land could be initially taken for 50 years extendable to a further period of 49 years. The corporate farming companies will be allowed to import agricultural machinery and seed without any tariff. They will not be subject to labour laws and will also have tax holiday for five years on irrigated lands, seven years for rain-fed areas and ten years for culturable waste lands comprising 9.14 million hectares (ha). Out of this, 4.87 million ha in Balochistan, 1.74 million ha in Punjab, 1.45 million ha in Sindh and 1.08 million ha in NWFP.
The Board of Investment (BoI) announced that 36 million acres (14.6 million ha) in all four provinces will be made available to foreign investors.
The pronounced objective of corporate farming policy is to bring investment, modern technology and expertise in production, processing and marketing of agricultural products. These will not only increase production and bring wastelands under cultivation but will also increase export and foreign exchange earnings. But the question arises from where these wastelands will get irrigation water. If water would have been available these lands would have already been brought under cultivation long ago .
Now the irrigation efficiency has already declined due to silting up of the existing reservoirs and non-construction of new water reservoirs/dams during the last 28 years due to politicization and provincialization of the water issue . President General Pervez Mushraf has already pointed out in his address to the nation on September 13 about the pros and cons of the water issue . Even if a new dam is constructed within the next 10 years, it will hardly meet the loss of water from the existing dams due to their increased silting up by that time .
Currently nearly 48 maf of groundwater is used, 70 per cent of which is marginal to severely brackish. Use of this brackish groundwater has already adversely affected about 3 million hectares of agricultural lands. In Balochistan the largest province, nearly 90 per cent of total irrigated land is in Nasirabad Division which is about 5 per cent of the total area of the province .The remaining 95 per cent of the province depends on rain and groundwater. But by over-mining of groundwater due to over-irrigation to high value crops there is virtually now no ground water in six basins of the province and only limited to fair quantity of groundwater is left in the remaining basins where continued over-mining may exhaust it in near future if no timely preventive measures are taken.
Thus it will be risky to invest money by foreign companies in this province which has over 50 per cent of the total culturable wasteland .Due to specific socio-economic conditions in this province if the national gas pipelines are blasted then how the foreign investors will be safe. Again, rain-fed areas can produce only limited number of non-high value crops .Moreover ,the major economic activity of rain-fed and arid lands is livestock and range management. Consequently ,the foreign corporate farming companies will be mostly interested in obtaining canal irrigated lands or areas with sweet groundwater .
Again, the idea of corporate farming is based on maximization of profits and not based on the production of food crops for survival. The foreign companies invest only in economically viable business. If they find more profit in high value crops ,they will invest in cash crops which are also high water requiring crops. This may boost the government’s foreign exchange earnings but not increase the production of food crops for survival and the country may have to import its food needs thus considerably negating the government’s foreign exchange earnings.
The powerful 7 per cent feudal lords having 39 per cent of the total farm land may change to as local corporate companies and enjoy all the facilities provided by the government for corporate farming. But 93 per cent of small farmers cultivating 61 per cent of farm land will not be eligible to these facilities . Consequently they will not be able to compete with foreign companies and local land lords .The proponents of corporate farming argue that small farmers are illiterate and ignorant. They should realize that small farmers are our essence and pillars of our agriculture.
In mid sixties when Mexican varieties of wheat were introduced, these were the small farmers which brought about green revolution in the country by having higher production of wheat .Again ,in early nineties an experiment in Punjab showed that by providing timely unadulterated inputs like seed, fertilizer, pesticides and provision of credit on easy terms to the farmers having less than 10 acres of land increased their yield by 300 per cent over the national average .
No doubt the present yields of our major crops are 50-70 per cent below their demonstrated achievable potential and we are importing edible oil, tea, milk and milk products and imported wheat till 1999-00. Thus, revival of our crop yields is needed, but corporate farming is not the answer . By providing small farmers unadulterated inputs ,quality seed ,ensuring the availability of the announced support prices , credit and free movement of its agricultural commodities within its borders can attain self-sufficiency in all food commodities. If high yields can be obtained from small farms in France and Japan then why we cannot do so in Pakistan.
Corporate farming scheme may also attract foreign investors in other agricultural sectors such as livestock, poultry ,fisheries, dairy production, production of mutton, growing of off-season vegetables , establishing of feed mills, fruit juice making plants, solvent oil extraction from rice bran, tomato paste, production of hybrid seed of different crops. Besides, they will also be allowed to construct their storages, cold storages, processing and exporting of agricultural products without any restriction. Hence these aliens will be in a position to play hell with the local markets by creating slumps.
This will adversely affect the production and marketing of local markets ,especially the small farmers . Besides ,these alien companies could export wheat ,rice (food crops) to such an extent so as to create shortage of these items .
Again it is questionable: will the real foreign commercial investors would come to invest in remote and poor areas of the country notorious for its shaky law and order situation , creaky social conditions and danger of terrorism .Only secret agencies of foreign countries may send their agents as alien investors for corporate farming to achieve their nefarious designs.
For instance, due to its enmity towards Pakistan, Israel has already formed an Israel-India-USA nexus and they are already present in India and Afghanistan and are working against the security of Pakistan. They may come as American investors for corporate farming to achieve their secret objectives. For instance a team of five foreign consultants was engaged in a sensitive province to assist and conduct agricultural research in that province. It was discovered later that the team leader was an Israeli agent who had links with the secret agency of a neighbouring country.
A conspiracy to kill the late General Zia ul Haq was discovered and reported to the most sensitive agency of the country in January 1987, but the plan of these foreign intelligent agencies was well planned that the General was subsequently killed in August, 1988. More over the government land is mostly available along the border, especially from Bahawalpur Division down to the coast. Other parcels are available along railway tracks, rivers, canal banks and coastal areas. These are all high security areas and important from defence point of view.
The government should take a decision only after considering pros and cons of corporate farming in depth. Some of the suggestions are given as under:
Corporate farming may first be initiated on a small scale as an experiment in each province. The land for corporate farming should be given only to Pakistanis of each province living abroad as they can adjust well to the conditions prevailing in each province The government should set a condition that the land will be taken back if conditions of corporate farming as initially agreed are not met within the set time frame. Those fulfilling the required conditions may be encouraged. After learning the impact of corporate farming on agricultural production and national economy ,it could be further extended on the basis of experience.
Alternately local small farmers including the landless tenants be allotted 50 or 100 acres of land per person with the facilities earmarked for the Pakistani investors living abroad. Improved production technology, inputs and credit be provided timely at their doorsteps.
Both these alternatives be monitored and evaluated for taking a final decision in the best national interest on the basis of actual field experience under the conditions obtaining in Pakistan.