This is apropos a letter to the Editor ‘The AgriTech way’ carried by the newspaper yesterday. In my view, authorities must realise that agri reforms, unlike other sectors, have relatively short gestation periods and the time lag between policy implementation and results is not very long.
This is, then, the best way to show on-ground improvement, upgrade the sector and lives and livelihoods of the many people and families associated with it, and also score precious political points in the process. That is why the hesitation at the top is very hard to understand, especially when everybody knows the best solution to a lingering problem.
There are reports that farmers themselves are also reluctant to abandon age-old practices in favour of modern technology. But that only underscores the need for an overarching narrative that must come from the state, yet nobody’s bothered so far.
In a country with one of the highest populations, and lowest literacy, rates in the world, the state must always step up to the plate and guide people forward. Arranging seminars, gathering experts, and hammering out solutions is all very fine. But it amounts to naught if the most important piece of the puzzle – effective implementation – is deliberately left out. It seems the government, especially the agriculture ministry, is criminally lacking in this regard.
Already we have been degraded from an agri exporter to an importer. And since the health of national reserves is not getting any better with time, and exports are just not picking up, the future could be even worse than the present if the trend of agri decline keeps up; which is very likely. In my view, AgriTech, as it is now called, is the only way forward. The longer the government delays it, the more it will be responsible for all that is wrong with the entire agri sector.
Salmaan Khan (Lahore)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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