RECORDER REPORT

FAISALABAD: CPEC is a golden opportunity for the overall development of this region and we should reorganize our agriculture sector to get a major share from $ 100 billion imports of agriculture produce by China, said Muhammad Mehmood, Secretary Agriculture Punjab.

He was addressing a launch ceremony of a Study Report on CPEC-Prospects & Challenges for Agriculture. He said that one fourth population of the world lives in China alone and most of their exports will be routed through Pakistan in the coming years after the completion of CPEC. The containers full of exportable surplus will be sent to various international markets but on return back, these containers will be empty and we must exploit this opportunity to export our surplus agriculture produce to China. Muhammad Mehmood said that the per capita income of China is increasing substantially, bringing a visible change in their life style and food habits. “Like other affluent societies, they also prefer rich and costly food and fruits,” he said and added that we must brace ourselves to get maximum benefit from this emerging change. He told that the agriculture department of Punjab is fully aware of this situation and was taking necessary steps to harvest maximum benefits. “We are concentrating on high value crops and in this connection a 10 years comprehensive program has been evolved to develop a hundred thousand acres of land in Potohar region for the cultivation of grapes and other high value crops,” he said and added that major Chinese importers would also be invited to utilize this land for the cultivation of high value fruits in addition to developing agriculture processing sector on modern scientific lines. “Its trickle effects will provide an opportunity to our farmers to upgrade their technologies and develop agriculture as a profitable business by avoiding century old practices,” he added.

He told that foreign consultants have been engaged to analyze the reasons for Pakistan being unable to claim its due share in Chinese imports despite of its friendly relations and close proximity. He said that we should renegotiate bilateral trade agreements and in this connection a meeting is expected during this or next month; after these meetings we would be in a position to decide that which strategy is suitable for Pakistan to enhance its shares in the Chinese imports. “I have already talked with commercial consular of China on this issue” he said and added that more deliberations are needed to finalize the renegotiated bilateral trade agreements.

Responding to a question about a research project on “China-Pakistan Agricultural Technical Cooperation” proposed by the Research & Development Cell of FCCI, the secretary agriculture said that Punjab Agriculture Research Board (PARB) is extending liberal grants to the viable projects received from public or private sector and Initially Rs259 Million were allocated for this purpose. The funding was immediately increased to Rs.750 Million and it would be further enhanced to Rs.3 Billion within next three years. He asked President FCCI to submit this project to PARB where a group of experts will review its viability and allow the requisite grant.

Secretary agriculture also explained in detail the numbers of innovative E-projects to streamline our agriculture sector and make it fully compatible with contemporary needs with inherent ability to compete with the developed agrarian economies.

Earlier in his address of welcome, Engineer Muhammad Saeed Sheikh President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) expressed concern over the massive migration from rural to urban areas. This has not only inflicted colossal loss to the agriculture sector but also created multiple problems for the cities. He said that the concept of green belts around major cities has become redundant and fertile agriculture land is mercilessly used for commercial purposes. He demanded complete ban on the use of agriculture land for commercial purpose. “The new and planned cities could also be developed at a suitable distance from the existing ones,” he said and added that green belts around cities must be preserved to cater to food related needs of each city. He said that everyone is getting food today and when the world population will swell to 10 billion even then Allah Almighty will provide food to all. He criticized the drastic increase in the price of wheat during Zardari era and said that the increase in wheat prices fomented a new wave of the price spiral. He said that the Word Bank in its report had also warned that this step will certainly play a catalytic role in increasing wheat production but it will badly disturb the whole economy. He said that he was not against giving maximum relief to the farming community but the increase in the prices of agriculture produce is not in the national interest. “The option of giving subsidy to the farmers instead of increasing price of agriculture produce was also available but government intentionally ignored it,” he added.

He further said that we now have wheat stocks for many years. “Our wheat is costly as compared to other countries and hence we are unable to sell it in the international market,” he added. He said that we could import wheat at much cheaper rate from other countries to meet our domestic needs and instead of concentrating on traditional crops, we should switch over the high value crops which are in high demand in international markets. He also stressed the need to import high yielding seeds to increase our production. Similarly standardization of fertilizers and pesticides is also imperative and for this purpose government should set up laboratories in addition to taking severe action against the adulterators.

President FCCI said that textile is the mainstay of local economy but our members are also involved in agriculture. Hence the president FCCI or his nominated persons should be included in all BODs and BOGs falling under the administrative domain of the agriculture department.

Vice President Engineer Ahmed Hasan said that the Study Report published by the R&D Department of CPEC will help us to reorganize agriculture on modern scientific lines. He told that per Acre yield of China is almost double as compared to ours, hence we should exploit china’s experience through modern farming, technology up-gradation and by launching Joint Ventures for value addition in collaboration with Chinese entrepreneurs.

Hafiz Azhar gave an explicit, comprehensive and detailed presentation on the study report CPEC-Prospects & Challenges for Agriculture.

A question answer session was also held in which Abid Masood, Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz, Usman Rauf, Sartaj Siddiqi, Engineer Asim Munir and Haji Muhammad Shafi raised interesting questions which were well responded.

Later, Vice President Engineer Ahmed Hassan offered vote of thanks. He also presented FCCI memento and books published by R&D Department of FCCI to secretary Agriculture Punjab.