Government urged to reduce prices of agriculture inputs

Pakistan Agriculture Scientists Association (PASA) President Jamshed Iqbal Cheema has urged the government to focus on reducing the prices of agricultural inputs so as the growers can produce maximum from the available resources and avoid food security threat.
'More production will pave way for ensuring availability of food at cheaper rates, while increasing production will also improve economic situation of the farmers. Also, the government can tax the production to generate more revenues,' Jamshed Iqbal Cheema observed while talking to Business Recorder on Wednesday.
He said around 1300 million people are living under poverty line in the world, while in Pakistan this ratio is around 44 percent. 'Hunger and poverty are co-related and around 80 million people are undernourished in Pakistan,' he added. "The Planning Commission in its July 2001 report said that Pakistan was producing 2150 calories per day against the consumption of 1900 per day, while our national standards say that per day consumption should be around 2150. However, the world per day consumption is 3000 calories. Currently Pakistan is producing 2590 calories per day but consumption has dropped to 1600 calories per day. This means that our people have started taking 15 percent less food while production has increased by 18 percent. This deterioration in food intake is the real cause of concern," Cheema said.
He regretted that both our federal and provincial governments are not trying to resolve real issues confronting the nation; rather they are only trying to appease vocal people. He was of the opinion that the present rulers were not touching the core issues.
He also believed that feudalism was another issue that needs to be addressed on top priority basis. He observed that feudalism is a phenomenon and the present rulers belong to this class. "Hence, they are least bothered to promote middle class and make effort to improve socio-economic conditions of the people. In comparison, China, India and Brazil are successfully addressing the issues of poverty and hunger," he added.
He pointed out that undernourishment is a global issue; in 1969 there were 960 million undernourished people across the globe, but with the development of new wheat variety by Dr Norman Borlaug the figure was reduced to 790 million in 2004. However, this number again started to rise; now there were around 1 billion undernourished people and every year 30 million people fall in this unfortunate category.
Coming to Pakistan, he said Pakistan's biggest enemies are hunger and poverty. He said around 44 percent of the total population are living under the poverty line and around 80 million were undernourished. "Whereas, if we only talk about wheat, in 2011, 130 kilogram wheat per person per year was available in the country, but only 93 kilogram per person per year was being consumed. In comparison, consumption in the year 2000 was around 108-kilogram per person. Visible reduction in wheat consumption shows that people's purchasing power has drastically reduced and hence they cannot even purchase wheat, which is staple food of common man," he added.
He was of the view that undernourishment is Pakistan's foremost issue and it is a major contributor in creating lawlessness in the country. He pointed out that several studies suggest that hunger result in loss of initiative and concentration and also loss of desire to study among the kids. He said there is a need to break this vicious circle of hunger and we need to do this as soon as possible. "If 97 percent of the urban population is net buyer of food then over 60 percent of the rural population is also net buyer of the food. Even 50 percent farmers are facing the threat of hunger. There is a need to make agricultural inputs cheaper so as farmers could produce more for the nation," he concluded.