It seems the economic managers are now seriously concerned about achieving their agriculture growth target of 3.8 percent for the current fiscal year and setting it up for the following one. The gravity of the issue has propelled the government to chalk out, rather thinking to chalk out a joint strategy to overcome the water, wheat and sugar crisis.
The strategy in-line intends to focus on building strategic reserves by building additional storage capacity for the major crops - among which, wheat tops the list. The recent problems of crop procurement caused by the lack of credit facility for the very purpose has also drawn the policymakers attention - as they are now planning to spur the credit facility in order to boost the crop size.
Another issue that has been included in the joint strategy is that of water scarcity which is badly hampering the crop yields. The country is facing an acute water shortage of 40 percent in the ongoing season, which is all set to dent the crop size, especially that of the all important wheat. Keeping this in mind, the policymakers are planning to adopt efficient water usage mechanism through an improvement in canal system and the likes.
Globally, effective techniques are used to overcome the water shortage, choosing the most efficient surface irrigation system. Secondly, based on the field experiment data, use of an economic-optimization model allows the identification of the best irrigation strategy to overcome the water scarcity.
Adopting such principles which could establish a balanced ratio between the amount of water applied to a crop and an economically acceptable target yield value, should be the focus of the joint strategy.
Storage capacity is a major issue which needs immediate attention as Pakistan only has 6.9 million tons of storage capacity - clearly insufficient to meet the requirement of the agriculture sector. In order to save the major crops from losing their value, another 6-7 million tons at least should be added to the system, for which a joint strategy needs to come up with a practical and sound plan.
Unfortunately, the ad-hoc government approach has contributed to the destabilization of price and worked contrary to food security goals. Though public investment in agriculture has gone up in the last few years, not much has been done to create better storage, handling and distribution infrastructure.
The alarm bells are ringing loud and one hopes that the strategy is finalized anytime soon and more importantly, implemented in the true spirit to reap the potential gains.
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