KARACHI: Pakistan is in urgent need to develop systematic agribusiness laws despite the fact that agriculture sector is the back bone of the economy, said Ahmad Jawad, a seasoned businessman and former Chairman of FPCCI Standing Committee.
Commenting on the first edition of World Bank report "Enabling the Business of Agriculture 2016: Comparing Regulatory Good Practices," he said countries where agriculture accounts for less than 25 percent of GDP were found to have better regulatory systems.
"The approach were found to foster agribusiness and ensure quality control and safety of food production," said Ahmad Jawad quoting the report that examines regulations affecting private enterprise in agribusiness in 40 countries around the world.
The World Bank report had identified that countries with agriculture as a major economic activity held greater room for improving key regulations that govern the agribusiness sector.
Ahmad Jawad suggested government top develop a program and break the strong influence of middlemen in business of agriculture produce by increasing markets in the rural areas and the provincial governments to chalk out a comprehensive plan to facilitate the farmers by reducing the influence of brokers.
He lamented that poor farmer had no option but to go to the middleman of his area for disposing off their produce who not only charge a fix 10 percent of total price of the produce but also pay less price of the produce as compared to the market price. specially the small farmers cannot afford to store their produce because they needed urgent money to meet their daily routine life expenditures.
"In order to increase the holding power of the farmers, the government has announced a special package to be provided to the small farmers on very low interest rate for all crops," said the seasoned businessman.
Ahmad Jawad said although the agriculture credit was being increased every year but was needed to be drastically increased to make the farmers independent and to improve their capacity to produce the agriculture products.
Senior FPCCI member said measures are also simultaneously needed to identify and monitor regulations that affect agriculture and agribusiness markets of Pakistan.
This is extremely important, he said as global population is estimated to grow to 9 billion by 2050, from the current 7.3 billion people, and food demand is projected to rise by 20 percent over the next 15 years.
The largest increases are expected in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and East Asia.
As countries accelerate their efforts to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ending poverty and hunger will require well-performing agriculture and food sectors that can cater to the rising demand, which in turn depends on smart regulations that enable agribusinesses to thrive, said the report compilers.
Though well-designed agribusiness laws and regulations are the bedrock of national and global efforts to address these daunting challenges.
By focusing on key elements of the food production and distribution value chain, enabling the business of agriculture hopes to promote regulatory systems that enable sustainable and inclusive agribusinesses to take root and thrive, stated World Bank first edition of enabling the business of agriculture.
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