Food security analysis: agricultural policy measures and its constraints in Pakistan

Abstract

This paper discusses agriculture as a priority area for addressing problems of unemployment, poverty alleviation and for fostering economic development. The agricultural policy focuses on sustainable food security, increasing productivity, commercial agriculture, imports substitution, income diversification and export orientation. A special focus is being made to establish a network of quality testing laboratories in public sector for grains, livestock diseases and products, fertilizer and agro-chemicals, residue testing and strengthening of plant and animal quarantine services. Capacity building on World Trade Organization (WTO) issue is an area of high priority and for the purpose. The main areas for focus in agricultural policy include food security, enhancing productivity, profitable farming and improving marketing of agricultural produce. Agriculture is still the single largest sector of the economy, contributing 21 percent to GDP. Agriculture performed poorly in 2007-08, growing at 1.5 percent against the target of 4.8 percent and 3.7 percent of last year. The growth performance of agriculture over the last six years has been of a volatile nature- ranging from 1.5 percent to 6.5 percent. The volatility in agricultural growth is mainly caused by the crops sector which is associated with the vagaries of Mother Nature, pest attacks, adulterated pesticides etc. Such volatility is detrimental to income growth of farmers and hampers government efforts to reduce poverty. What Pakistan needs is a change in policy orientation from the current practice of focusing exclusively on price to yield enhancement and simultaneously address structural issues such as poor crop management and skills of farmers; use of cheaper seeds; lack of agricultural infrastructure and higher post-harvest losses; limited research as well as the gap between available research and practical applications; and inadequate funding for research and development.