Federal Minister of National Food Security and Research Tariq Bashir Cheema said that the crop and livestock productivity in Pakistan is less than 50 percent of the economic potential.
He was addressing the Prime Minister’s pre-budget conference on agriculture on 7 June 2022.
Tariq Bashir Cheema said that the Ministry of National Food Security and Research has worked closely with the Planning Commission and all provinces to devise a 3-Year Growth Strategy for sector development and improve food security.
The strategy has four main pillars i.e., enhancement of farm productivity and farmer profits, development of climate-smart agriculture by adopting regenerative agricultural practices, self-sufficiency and import substitution and value-addition and agro-processing
Federal Minister said that the crop and livestock productivity in Pakistan is less than 50 percent of the economic potential. Farmer profits are generally low and highly variable.
Higher and focused investments in research and development, rapid mechanization, and adoption of climate-smart regenerative agricultural practices will significantly decrease the cost of production, increase farmer profits, and save more than half of irrigation water and chemical inputs.
Tariq Bashir Cheema said that we need to focus on genetic improvements for high-yielding crop cultivars, ensure an adequate and timely supply of inputs (water, seeds, fertilizer, pesticides) and announcement of support price, at least, 3 months before the start of the cropping season while minimizing post-harvest losses and improvement in processing and packaging techniques.
Federal Minister said that the livestock sector needs genetic improvements for high-yielding livestock breeds, provision of adequate and timely healthcare facilities, improved feeds and feeding techniques, value addition to livestock products (dairy and beef/mutton), identification of policy measures to enhance agriculture sector exports through trade agreements with more countries.
He continued that there is a dire need to devise policy reforms/actions for growth strategy in the agricultural sector to boost exports, substitute exports and/or attain self-sufficiency.
Source: Pro Pakistani