Indus River System Authority (IRSA) advisory committee is likely to meet on March 25 to access the availability of water for the coming Kharif season, Rao Irshad Ali Khan, Chairman IRSA said while talking to media persons on the sidelines of a Roundtable Discussion on 'Agriculture and Water in Pakistan'.
This 'Roundtable Discussion' was organised by the Planning Commission of Pakistan in collaboration with United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Bank. The Chairman said, "We have not witnessed any water shortage during the current Rabi season and are hopeful that during the early Kharif season that is starting from April 1, till September 30, we will not have to face any water shortage at all".
The water storage capacity of Pakistan is just 8-10 percent of the total availability that is 25 percent less than India. "After the establishment of Diamer-Bhasha, Akhori and Kalabagh dams, the water storage capacity of Pakistan will increase to 23 percent", the Chairman said. According to a World Bank report titled, 'Better Management of Indus Basin Waters', Pakistan is seriously confronted with the issue of less water storage capacity. Pakistan has only 150 cubic meters of storage capacity per capita.
The report says that large dams do not only increase the assurance of water supply, but can also generate large amount of electricity. Currently, about 30% of Pakistan's energy is generated from water. Even though irrigation requirements are its priority, Tarbela's power generation account for 60% of the overall economic benefits from the dam and the power benefits would be even higher from either Kalabagh or Basha.
Rachid Benmessaoud, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan said that the contribution of agriculture to GDP is more than 24 percent. The need is to bring in large investment for the development of agriculture sector. The conference is being attended by government officials, agriculture scientists, and World Bank representatives, USAID deputy mission director Rodger Garner and other national and international scholars.
Dr Muhammad Jameel Khan, advisor on agriculture planning, Planning Commission of Pakistan giving his presentation on "Agriculture Growth and Productivity Enhancement" said that it needs new development approach in Pakistan. The government should encourage private sector as an engine of agriculture growth and agriculture market should be open for private sector, while the government should only monitor proper functioning of the markets, he added.
He was of the view in Pakistan government announces support price for many crops and a large share of the agriculture output is being purchased by the public sector organisation including Pakistan Agriculture storage and Services Corporation (Passco) and provincial food departments, which discourages private sector. He said that during 1980s Pakistan's agriculture growth was 5.4 percent, which declined to 4.4 percent during 1990s and in 21st century it further declined to 3.2 percent due to policies of the government.
Comparing the labour productivity in the agriculture sector of Asia, he said that in Pakistan it has registered a growth rate of 0.2 percent from 2000-07, while during the same period in India it was 2.2 percent, in China 6.4 percent and in Bangladesh 1.4 percent. The government has to develop viable plan for enhancing agriculture labor productivity through training workshops, community organisation and Ngos, Dr Jameel argued.
Pakistani farmers have the potential to increase per hector yield as a progressive farmer who uses modern ways of farming gets 4.6 tons output per hectare, while per hectare yield of a subsistence farmer is 2.6 ton, which shows 44 percent yield gap. Giving the reason of low productivity, he said that inadequate certified seeds of different crops, unbalanced use of fertilisers, poor mechanisation, static cropping pattern, insufficient investment in agriculture research and deficient extension are the main causes behind low yield in Pakistan. He said that 45 percent of the cotton seed being used by the farmers is not certified, 31 percent of rice, 33 percent of maize, 22 percent of wheat, 19 percent of oilseeds and 11 percent of fodder seed is also unapproved.
A total 0.5 million tractors are being used by the farmers with 0.9 horsepower per cropped hectare, which is insufficient as compared to 1.4 horsepower recommended by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), he informed. Financial institutions were reluctant in provision of loans to agriculture sectors as compared to industrial sector and the share of agriculture credit is only 4.5 percent of the total credit portfolio.
In Pakistan public sector investment in agriculture research as percentage of the sector GDP is 0.3 percent, which is far below compared to 2.4 percent of the developed countries and 0.53 percent of developing countries. Dr Jameel said that agriculture sector was facing many other challenges like resource depletion, salinity, water-logging, silting of reservoirs, low water delivery and wastage of water in terms of efficiency Pakistani farmers are using more water as compared to the other agriculture countries of the world. Chairman Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), Dr Muhammad Afzal speaking on the occasion said that agriculture sector in Pakistan over the years has registered phenomenal growth.
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