The agriculture part of Pakistan Peoples Party’s manifesto makes for an interesting reading. If voted back to power, the party promises to do many things, which it has not done during the first tenure. But the document itself proves that the party knows exactly what is wrong with the sector and also knows the solutions.
For example, apart from getting its figures right on the social importance and economic contribution of the sector, the party tells us that it faces two main structural challenges: lack of modern practices to enhance yields and the lack of investment capital. In addition, 94 per cent of farmers own 25 acres or less, and have little or no support.
The party promises to get the bigger picture right through what it calls People’s Agriculture Programme. How? It falls short on details. The PPP has history on its side as it tried twice to re-distribute lands in the 1970s. However, it did not touch the issue during next three terms in the office. Does it plan to dust off the same social and economic ethos? Only time would tell.
The party manifesto holds promise as it commits to promote community farming through “clusters or cooperatives of farmers. Run by farmers, these cooperatives, covering up to 500 acres, will be provided tractors, laser levelers and other implements on rent. The banks will provide soft loans for the purchase of fertiliser, seeds and pesticide, with minimal requirements for paperwork in the revenue department. The cooperatives will be responsible for loan repayment.”
Most of the farmers’ bodies have been stressing community farming as the only solution to problems of small farmers. The use of modern technology, balanced fertiliser, diversification to more paying crops and investment on lands is not affordable/possible for this overwhelming majority of farmers.
To make the matter worse, they are exposed to highly cartelised market. The only way for them to survive is to form these cooperatives, empower them and their bargaining position viz-a-viz market forces.
The PPP also pledges to “plan, build and upgrade farm-to-market roads for improving the transportation of agricultural goods and products across the country, set up markets at the tehsil (taluka) level, with proper storage facilities such as silos and cold storage units.
They would be run as public-private partnership basis. Farmers will be able to store their produce in exchange for receipts which can be used instead of cash to make payments. Similarly, farmers’ markets will be established in every district.”
This is again a major pledge and, if honoured fully, this could address a fundamental flaw in the current state of affairs in the agriculture marketing. With absence of multi-grain stores, the poor farmers, without any holding capacity, fall fully on the market; they need to immediately dispose of their crop and clear debts.
This lack of holding capacity (storage) hurts them beyond redemption and gives the middle man or other traders a chance to fully exploit hapless growers. In most cases, buyers lift the produce directly from the field, and purchase it at exceptionally low rates. This single step, if taken, can put a firewall between farming community and exploitative forces within the agriculture trading system.
The PPP’s heart and head seems to be in the right place when it says that it plans to “encourage local manufacturing of drip irrigation systems and promote the lining of all water channels. Schemes for solar powered tube-wells will be developed. Pilot projects to take water to tail end growers would also be initiated.”
The PPP government owes this to the nation generally and farmers particularly. It should compensate farmers for its failure to start, leave alone build water storage in the country during its five years. It should promote all water saving technologies, bring their cost down to the reach of farmers and subsidise them where needed.
Water availability promises to remain a big issue in near and distant future as glaciers shrink and the planet heats up. The world is moving towards saving each drop of water where ever it can. So should Pakistan and all its future governments.
The PPP has also promised to “announce an agriculture policy at the beginning of every year, fixing the support price of wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton, and specifying the subsidies that are to be provided for inputs. The pricing of agricultural commodities will take into account the cost of inputs, marketing, distribution, transportation, communication, land, labour and credit.” In addition, they will, “maintain a check on fertiliser prices through a regulatory body which will include agriculturists; provide subsidies at par with other regional countries and devise mechanisms for public-private partnerships to fund subsidies for local farms.”
This is encouraging, to say the least. The biggest objection by the farmers in opening borders with India has been subsidy issue. In Pakistan, the sector is heavily taxed. In other regional countries, it is hugely subsidised. This creates uneven playing field for regional trade and development.
All efforts to create regional markets and free movement of at least food items in the regional have fallen flat because they cost differently to farmers in different countries. One hopes that the authors of the PPP manifesto knew the financial cost of this programme and that it was not just an election gimmick.
Other promises like, “increasing allocations for seed improvement, pest control, fertilisers, pesticides, soil analysis and water management and involving NGOs and the private sector in it” augurs well. The PPP, however, should have better explained why it failed to do all this during its last tenure.