National Assembly Speaker Presents New Agricultural Growth Strategy

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Islamabad, the January 29th , 2021: The National Assembly Special Committee on Agricultural Products chaired by the Speaker National Assembly presented an integrated structural reforms oriented agricultural growth strategy for the next 7 years. The presentation was made to a Committee of the Cabinet working on the new agriculture package.

In a bid to build the national consensus on the proposed agricultural growth strategy, Asad Qaiser called for a close scrutiny of the entire strategy. He added that after presentation to the Sub-Committee of the Cabinet on Agriculture, the strategy would be presented to the Prime Minister and subsequently the report would be laid in the National Assembly for debate. He made these remarks while presiding the meeting of the Special Committee on Agricultural Products her at Parliament House, Islamabad on Friday.

The chief components of the strategy included Special initiatives for Balochistan, South Punjab, KP, Tharparkar, Cotton Revival program, Oilseed Development, Low-Cost Refinance Line of Credit & Credit Enhancement for Digital Production Finance, Digitization of Demand-Driven Extension Content, Integrated Seed System, Agriculture Climate Change Insurance Pool (Farmer Risk Transfer Mechanism) / Satellite-based Crop Reporting), Establishment of Agriculture Development Authority for Coordination of Reform Implementation, linkages with Ehsaas, Kamyab Jawan and CPEC and incentives for promoting investment in warehousing, contract farming and farmers produce organizations.

The panel was informed that the overarching objective is to achieve Agriculture growth rate of 7.5% p.a. by FY 2027-28 led and sustained by producer-owned integrated market-based value chains that incentivize producers to continue investing in modern and climate-smart production technologies, expansion of cultivated land area and value added activities

The Convener of the Sub-Committee Ms. Shandana Gulzar Khan briefed the meeting on agricultural growth strategy. She presented a data driven snapshot of the structure of Pakistan’ agriculture sector followed by a presentation of the Sub-Committee’s proposed strategy. She highlighted that that the overarching goal of the proposed strategy is to boost agricultural exports, accelerate rural-development driven economic growth, reduce rural poverty, enhance financial and gender inclusion in agricultural sector. Drawing upon historical data she explained that the inconsistent growth patterns of agricultural sector reveals lack of consistency in policy and planning for the sector.

She further added that the proposed model envision a pro-poor growth strategy focusing on transformation of the business model of the 7.4 million smallholder farmers who cultivate 48% of the total cultivable land. She stated that the weak business model of the smallholder farmers comprising low bargaining power, low access to finance, low yields, fragmented market segment, lack of access to competitive markets and high production cost hindered the modernization of the agriculture sector. Shandana Gulzar Khan further added that the proposed strategy drawing upon eco-system based, multi-pronged three phased strategy seeks to transform Pakistan’s subsistence agricultural into modern, diversified, competitive and high-value agriculture with a particular focus productivity and profitability of the smallholders’ farmers.

The Convener of the Sub-Committee explained that the objective of the plan is to accelerate the modernization of agriculture sector so that the sector can generate resources for the sustained development of the economy with a high degree of self-reliance. She added that the proposed program would complement the Prime Minister’s initiatives for agriculture sector.

The meeting was attended by Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Syed Fakhar Imam and other MNAs.

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