A poor agricultural policy would have destroyed the profession of agriculture

Due to the increase in agricultural intervention, the agricultural sector in Pakistan is suffering from a severe situation and the dangerous tendency of its skilled workforce among the youth to end their commitment to the agricultural sector will leave us in need of a piece of bread. Paying Department of Agriculture. On the one hand, it is meeting the food needs of the population, on the other hand, it is helping to save valuable foreign exchange by limiting the imports of food commodities. provides goods and a major part of the country’s exports is based on agricultural commodities and their products, which earns a lot of foreign exchange. In addition, it accounts for 19.9 percent of the country’s GDP and 42.27 percent of employment. And it has direct and indirect relationship with other sectors due to which it is playing an important role in the socio-economic development of the country. But despite all this importance, a shocking fact is that the proportion of people involved in the agriculture sector in the country is decreasing, in simple words it can be said that people are leaving this profession.

According to the statistics of Economic Survey of Pakistan 2016-17 and 1997-98, in 2014-15, 42.27 percent of the employed persons aged ten years and above in Pakistan were engaged in agriculture (its sub-sectors, forestry and fishing), while in 1994- In 1995, this share used to be 46.79 percent. In rural and urban areas, this rate has decreased from 61.94 to 58.62 and from 5.80 to 5.17 percent respectively. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has the highest number of people saying goodbye to the agricultural sector in the country. From 1994-95 to 2014-15, this ratio decreased from 50.50 percent to 34.56 percent, where the proportion of employed persons engaged in the agriculture sector decreased from 55.48 percent to 43.43 percent. While in 1994-95, agriculture in Balochistan The percentage of those who got employment was the highest in the country. The third decrease occurred in Sindh where the proportion of people engaged in agriculture employment decreased from 42.35 percent to 39.28 percent during the said period. 44.70 percent of the employed people in Punjab were related to agriculture in 2014-15, which used to be 47.21 percent in 1994-95. The resources are decreasing. Along with this, the timing of the change of seasons is also changing and the severity of the seasons is also increasing, which has negative effects on agricultural production. Apart from this, the gap between expenditure and income in the agriculture sector is also increasing day by day.

According to experts, these and many other factors like them force people to abandon the profession of agriculture. In the presence of all these facts, if the agriculture sector is not given immediate attention and people continue to abandon it, it will cause the country Efforts to eradicate poverty in general and in villages in particular will suffer a severe setback because in rural areas where the majority of people depend on agriculture. Other sources of employment are more limited and poverty is already entrenched. If people give up agriculture and try to get a new job, they will have to go to cities due to lack of resources and non-existence of other employment opportunities at the local level.

This leads to increase in urban population and burden on resources. And something like this is happening with Pakistan. Because in 1998, 32.52 percent of the country’s population was living in urban areas, now this ratio has increased to 36.37 percent by 2017. And during these 19 years, the urban population of the country has increased more than the rural population, which is 66 percent, and compared to this, the rural population has recorded a total increase of 52 percent. The majority of the rural population is less educated and in other sectors than agriculture. Being unskilled, they are forced to take up occupations in cities that earn them only enough income to sustain their soul-body connection. At a time when the energy crisis and its rising prices have put severe pressure on the country’s economy. Given the availability of new sources of employment, maintaining the existing sources has become a major challenge. So where and how should these Turkish professionals be spent? This is an important question. All these situations demand the attention of our planners, but one more thing is worth considering that the share of agriculture in our GDP has gradually decreased since 1995. It has increased from 24.8 percent in 1996 to 19.9 percent in 2015-16. Apart from this, another aspect that requires immediate attention is that we need to increase our agricultural production for the growing population of the country. There has been a total increase of 57%. On the contrary, agricultural production (wheat, rice, millet, millet, maize, barley, chickpea, sugarcane, canola and sorghum, sesame, cotton and tobacco) has increased by 52%.

According to the analysis of Economic Survey of Pakistan 2016-17 and 2006-07 figures, the average annual gross of major crops (mentioned above) in the country during the five-year period (1992-97) before the 1998 census The production was 6 crore 78 lakh 79 thousand 580 tonnes, which was an average of 10 crore 30 lakh 65 thousand 740 tonnes annually during 2011-16 before the 2017 census. During these 20 years, wheat production in the country increased by 51.81%, rice by 71.52%, maize by 253%, sugarcane by 46.58% and cotton by 38.17%. While the production of fruits (trishawa, mango, apple, banana, apricot, almond, grape and guava) increased by 34.54% overall.

Population growth and agricultural production situation can also be seen from another scale. Annual average production of major crops during the five years 1992-97 and 1998 census results illustrating In 1998, per capita production of agricultural commodities (wheat, rice, millet, millet, maize, barley, gram, sugarcane, canola and sorghum, sesame, cotton and tobacco) was available in the country. In the light of the average annual production of 2011-16 and the results of the 2017 census, the availability of 496 kg per capita is 3.39%. Wheat is the most important crop of the country and has a central position in our food system. Its per capita availability has decreased from 123.81 kg to 119.73 kg during the mentioned period. While the availability of sugarcane is 327.73 kg per capita. It has come to 306.02 kg per person. That is, the per capita availability of wheat and sugarcane in the country has decreased by four and 21.71 kg respectively. Similarly, the availability of cotton has decreased from 11.76 kg to 10.35 kg per capita. On the contrary, the availability of rice and maize has increased. And it has increased from 28.45 kg to 31.09 and 10.14 to 22.82 kg per capita respectively.

This imbalance between population growth and agricultural commodity production appears to be minor in nature. But it is warning us of impending danger. That we have to take timely measures to meet the needs of the growing population. Among which the increase in the production per hectare of the commodity is at the top. Although the average annual production per hectare of 2011-16 is much higher than our 1992-97 average annual production per hectare. And during this period, a total increase of 30% has been achieved in the production of wheat, rice, sugarcane, corn, gram and cotton per hectare in the country, but still we are different from many countries in the world, especially in South Asia. We are lagging behind in per hectare production of agricultural commodities. For example, according to FAO data, in 2014, we were ranked 62nd worldwide in per hectare production of wheat. And our production was lower than India and Bangladesh. In the mentioned year, Pakistan’s wheat production was 28241 ha/ha (10 ha is equivalent to one kilogram), while India’s was 31457 and Bangladesh’s 30319 ha. We were ranked 87th in the world in paddy production per hectare. But we were behind the six countries of South Asia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Afghanistan. Regarding millet production per hectare. We were ranked 96th in the world. And we were behind Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh and India. In terms of maize production per hectare, our situation was better at the regional level but we were ranked 70th in the world.

And in South Asia, only Bangladesh’s production was better than ours. In terms of production per hectare of barley, we were ranked 93rd in the world in 2014. And India, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh were achieving better production than us. It was behind India and ranked 54th in the global ranking. We were ranked 62nd in sesame production per hectare, while the countries of the region, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and India had a better situation than us. Despite this, our farmers produced the eighth largest wheat crop in the world in 2014. 5th highest sugarcane yield. 13th major paddy crop. It gave the 25th highest yield of maize, 66th of barley, 43rd of millet and 20th of sesame.

Management and resource management is the name for increasing agricultural production per hectare in the country. If the crop is cultivated on time and the required agricultural inputs are provided to the crop on time, it is possible to increase the production per hectare. For this, we need to further increase the efficiency of agricultural inputs and provide more incentives and modern training to the farmer regarding their use. That is, only approved seeds should be used. Be and be more efficient. While ensuring the sustainable use of agricultural drugs, it is also necessary to look at its effectiveness. So that the cost can be reduced and the benefits can be obtained more. Referring to the challenges facing the increase in production per hectare, he said that the country The operational farm size is getting smaller due to which there is less tendency to use machinery in land preparation. Apart from this, there is also the problem of climate change and water scarcity. Therefore, agricultural scientific research needs to be done according to the objective conditions.

If we overcome these factors and further improve our yield per hectare and increase our cultivated area to 22.01 million hectares (cultivated at least once in a year or at least once during the last year) (which According to the statistics of 1995-96 and 2015-16, we have been able to increase only 1.52% and even today there are 8.25 million hectares of land in the country which is suitable for cultivation but which was cultivated in the said year or the previous year. (not done) then of course we can become an agricultural power. But the increase in cultivated area is possible only if we develop our water resources by building reservoirs and delivery systems instead of politicizing them. Be serious about reaching an agreed solution.