Asad Qaiser hands over 7-year agricultural plan to MNFS&R, cabinet committee

ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser handed over a comprehensive and integrated structural reforms-oriented agricultural growth strategy for the next seven years to the Minister for National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R) and the Sub-Committee of the Cabinet on Agriculture.

The objective of the agriculture growth strategy is to achieve agriculture growth rate of 7.5 percent p.a. by financial year 2027-28 led and sustained by producer-owned integrated market-based value chains that incentivise producers to continue investing in modern and climate-smart production technologies, expansion of cultivated land area and value added activities.

It was added that the overarching goal of the proposed strategy is to boost agricultural exports, accelerate rural development-driven economic growth, reduce rural poverty, enhance financial and gender inclusion in agricultural sector.

The chief components of the strategy included Special initiatives for Balochistan, South Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Tharparkar, Cotton Revival program, Oilseed Development, Low-Cost Refinance Line of Credit and Credit Enhancement for Digital Production Finance, Digitization of Demand-Driven Extension Content, Integrated Seed System, Agriculture Climate Change Insurance Pool (Farmer Risk Transfer Mechanism)/ Satellite-based Crop Reporting), Establishment of Agriculture Development Authority for Coordination of Reform Implementation, linkages with Ehsaas, Kamyab Jawan, and the CPEC and incentives for promoting investment in warehousing, contract farming and farmers produce organisations.

It was added that the proposed model envision a pro-poor growth strategy focusing on transformation of the business model of the 7.4 million smallholder farmers who cultivate 48 percent of the total cultivable land.

It was stated that the weak business model of the smallholder farmers comprising low bargaining power, low access to finance, low yields, fragmented market segment, lack of access to competitive markets and high production cost hindered the modernisation of the agriculture sector.

It was maintained that the proposed strategy drawing upon eco-system based, multi-pronged three-phased strategy seeks to transform Pakistan’s subsistence agricultural into modern, diversified, competitive and high-value agriculture with a particular focus productivity and profitability of the smallholders’ farmers.

On this occasion, the speaker said that the plan is to accelerate the modernisation of the agriculture sector, so that the sector can generate resources for the sustained development of the economy with a high degree of self-reliance.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021