LAHORE, April 9: The agriculture sector in Punjab, and in Pakistan by extension, is going down by the year and no-one is trying to retrieve the situation, the AgriForum Pakistan claimed here on Saturday.
After a meeting to determine the causes of the downfall, forum chairman Ibrahim Mughal claimed that people had to pay exceptionally high prices of food because input prices had gone up by 100 to 300 per cent in the last three years.
He said that participants from all over the province were of the firm opinion that a total lack of planning, weak administrative machinery, expensive inputs and reduction in use of certified seed played havoc with the sector.
Almost all crops missed the official target during the last two years, but no-one seems to bother in the official circles.
In 2009-10, the gram target was fixed at 655,000 tons, but only 490,000 tons was produced. The lentil target was missed by 50 per cent; only 5,000 tons were produced against a target of 10,000 tons. Only 29,000 tons canola was produced against a target of 75,000 tons and sunflower target was missed by almost 30 per cent.
In 2010-11, the cotton target was missed again despite reduction in weight of cotton bale; only 8.5 million bales were produced against a target of 9.7 million bales. All the BT benefit was lost due to bad planning. Rice target was fixed at 3.4 million tons but only 2.6 million tons were produced.
Moong target, which was fixed at 139,000 tons, was missed by 77,000 tons and the mash target was also missed by 50 per cent, 5,000 ton production as against 10,000 tons target.
No heads were rolled despite such a poor performance. If such gross negligence and the policy failures have to be ignored, one can easily understand the departmental inertia, he said and added: “This lack of reward and punishment is a sure recipe for destroying any sector, and, in fact, it has destroyed the agriculture in the province.”
The second biggest reason for agriculture destruction is the increasing cost of inputs, which literally have gone haywire — pulling the rug from under the feet of the sector, he insisted.
During the last three years of the present government, the price of di-ammonium phosphate has risen by a staggering 307 per cent — from Rs993 per bag in 2008 to Rs4,049 per bag in 2011.
The urea prices have gone up from Rs527 per bag to Rs1,150 per bag, a rise of 118 per cent. The price of nitrogen phosphate (NP) has gone up from Rs670 per bag to Rs2,622 per bag, an increase of 294 per cent.
During the same period, the price of calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) fertiliser has increased by 145 per cent — from Rs396 per bag in 2008 to Rs972 at present. The price of single super phosphate (SSP) has also gone up by 145 per cent.
As if this was not enough, the diesel prices have gone up by 64 per cent — from Rs57.14 per liter to Rs94 per liter. Electricity prices have increased by 85 per cent and tractors’ price has also gone up by another 85 per cent. Can any sector absorb this kind of increase without reflecting it in the output? These are precisely the reason behind the increase in food prices.
If the sector continues missing production targets, putting pressure on the supply side, and is forced to use exceptionally high inputs, it does not take a genius to calculate what will happen to the output.
The government needs to take an elaborate consultative process that brings all stakeholders on one platform to thrash the issues out. Till then, one can only hope against the hope and keep praying for the sector, he warned.
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