Pakistan Agricultural Coalition (PAC) Strategy Advisor Kazim Saeed has said that the country loses $1 billion on an annual basis on just three crops due to the use of poor seeds and outdated methods.
Speaking at an event in Karachi on Monday, Saeed said Pakistan produced $12 billion worth of corn, wheat and rice annually, of which $1 billion per year is lost due to supply-chain and storage problems.
Pakistan is currently struggling to get just over a billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme to escape a default.
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“It’s high time to take some concrete action to uplift the sector which will in turn expand the export base of Pakistan,” he said, adding that agriculture is one of the few sectors which can help enhance exports without increasing imports.
“The sector is sick but despite a below par per acre yield, Pakistan is an agricultural superpower,” said Saeed. “Pakistan ranks fourth in cotton production and eighth in wheat production despite the fact that there are 120 countries producing wheat.”
PAC’s sponsors have a cumulative turnover of over $10 billion and they possess technical and business expertise in agriculture-related sectors. Its sponsors include HBL, Fatima Fertilizer, Engro Fertilizer, K&Ns and Nishat Group.
“PAC’s vision of agricultural sector is private, technology-driven, entrepreneurial and globally competitive,” Saeed said.
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Saeed stressed that there is no need for research and development in agriculture because what needs to be done to increase per acre yield has already been established decades ago.
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Explaining his firm’s role in lifting the sector’s performance, he said that there were several bottlenecks and hurdles that needed to be removed and addressed.
He said that if access to finance is given directly to farmers, the per acre yield would increase. This is because the middlemen, who normally extend loans to farmers, influence input decisions of growers such as forcing farmers to buy low quality seeds.
Saeed said that using the right kind of seeds and machinery could enhance the per acre yield by up to 50% in some cases.
Some of the projects of PAC include establishment of Pakistan’s first electronic warehouse receipts regime. This regime is bringing financial access to farmers by collateralizing commodities for loans, and also creating strong incentives for crop testing, grading, and standardization, proper storage, reduction in post-harvest losses, and preservation of crop quality for exports.
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Saeed said that PAC aimed to connect Pakistan’s agriculture to industry, finance, government, and the world. For that purpose it is also organizing Pakistan’s first ‘Agri-Connections Event 2023’ on March 16 in Karachi.
He said that $2 million has already been invested by leading business groups of Pakistan in Naymat Collateral which accredits agri-warehouses and warehouse receipts of Rs2 billion have already been issued against harvest placed in these accredited warehouses to get loans.
He said that PAC had also convinced USAID to fund a feasibility study on grain storages to attract investment in this important segment of the agri-economy. The study was conducted in August-December 2020 by multiple experts and was led by PAC’s Kazim Saeed. Moreover, its recommendations and financial model are being actively used to support advocacy work for the regime and to convince agri-sector stakeholders to invest in storages.
PAC has also worked with the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) to develop and implement a multi-year program for increasing Pakistan’s rice exports by introducing mechanization in rice cultivation.
The aims of the project include improving farm productivity, cutting post-harvest losses (15-20%) and also significantly increasing rice exports over the next few years.