AGRICULTURAL-SECTORAL-REFORMS-AND-THE-LIVESTOCK-SECTOR-IN-PAKISTAN.

Agriculture is considered the backbone of Pakistan’s economy, which relies heavily on its major crops.

By PROF (R) DR MUHAMMAD YOUNAS

Pakistan’s principal natural resources are arable land and water. Agriculture accounts for about 19.2 percent of Pakistan’s GDP which is higher than contribution of any other sector. It employs about 38.5 percent of the labor force. The sector is the major source of food of huge population of the country. It is also the major source of provision of raw martial to industrial sector.
In 2019, agriculture contributed around 22.04 percent to the GDP, 18.34 percent came from the industry and over half of the economy’s contribution to GDP came from the services sector. While the contribution of livestock to Agricultural GDP is around 60 percent, 8 M population getting their 35-40 percent of their income from animal sources.
 
Agri sector is indispensable to the country’s economic growth, food security, employment opportunities and poverty alleviation particularly in rural areas. More than 65-70 percent of population depends on agriculture for its livelihood.
The main export products are cotton, rice, fruit and vegetables and the principal imports are wheat and wheat flour, vegetable oils, pulses, tea and (sometimes) refined sugar. Vegetable oils, together with wheat and flour, have constituted as much as 80 percent of agricultural imports in the previous years.
 
This sector, however, has been prone to several challenges like climate change, temperature variance, water shortage, changes in precipitation patterns along with increase in input prices and population pressure. Besides this, Agriculture sector performance during the year 2020-2021 has been 2.77 percent.
 
The main Agricultural products are cotton, wheat, rice, sugarcane, fruits and vegetables, the irrigation system of Pakistan belongs to one of the world’s largest systems to support agricultural production. Being a major cash crop of Pakistan, cotton is considered the backbone of the economy. It contributes about 0.8 percent to GDP and 4.1 percent of total value addition in agriculture. But in recent years cotton farmers have shifted to maize and sugarcane as cotton has become a cost intensive crop getting more prone to natural vagaries.
 
Agriculture has been defined as the science, art or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing/raising of animals to provide food, feed, fiber and fuel to the mankind. Agriculture provides most of the world’s food and fabrics. It includes the preparation of plant and animal products for people to use and their distribution to markets. Although Agriculture has been a practice of cultivating land, raising crops and feeding, breeding and raising livestock and poultry farming but unfortunately animal part has been seldom given the importance as other crops.
 
Agriculture farming in the country is on subsistence farming including intensive and primitive farming. Today, there are two main divisions of agriculture, subsistence and commercial, which roughly correspond to the less developed and more developed regions. Shifting cultivation including grain farming, plantation and mixed farming are also common.
 
Agriculture not only gives riches to the nation, but the only riches she can call her own. The types of Agriculture like: (i) nomadic herding, (ii) Livestock ranching, (iii) shifting cultivation, (iv) intensive subsistence farming, (v) commercial plantations, (vi) Mediterranean agriculture and (vii) commercial grain farming are also practiced world over. These divisions have taken place on the basis of people, places, culture, type and texture of land available and the environment, etc. Some scientists have classified the farming into 10 types of farming which are: (i) arable farming, (ii) pastoral farming, (iii) mixed farming, (iv) subsistence farming, (v) commercial farming, (vi) extensive and intensive farming, (vii) nomadic farming (viii) sedentary farming, (ix) poultry farming and (x) fish farming.
 
In true sense, Farming involves rearing of animals and growing of crops for raw materials and food. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Sheep and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. The Zagros Mountain range, which lies at the border between Iran and Iraq, was home to some of the world’s earliest farmers. Sometime around 12,000 years ago, our hunter-gatherer ancestors began trying their hand at farming.
 
Some sources say that humans invented agriculture between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago, during the Neolithic era, or the New Stone Age. There were eight Neolithic crops: emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, hulled barley, chickpeas, and flax. Agriculture has undergone significant developments since the time of the earliest cultivation. The history of agriculture records the domestication of plants and animals and the development and dissemination of techniques for raising them productively. Farming started later in China, Africa’s Sahel, New Guinea and some regions of the Americas. Farming led to the rise of the Neolithic Revolution. It was an era when people abandoned nomadic hunting for city settlements.
 
The Fertile Crescent, traversing the Levant, the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia, is believed to be where agriculture and domestication of plants and animals was first practiced. Countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Syria and Jordan make up this area that was once known as the Fertile Crescent. Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped region where the first settled agricultural communities of the Middle East and Mediterranean basin are thought to have originated, spanning modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Named for its rich soils, the Fertile Crescent, often called the “Cradle of Civilization,” is found in the Middle East, extending around the rivers Tigris and Euphrates in a semicircle from Israel to the Persian Gulf, where the Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Phoenician and Hebrew civilizations flourished. Irrigation and agriculture developed here because of the fertile soil found near these rivers. Access to water helped with farming and trade routes.
 
People first grew crops such as barley and wheat. Although they engaged in agriculture, they still collected most foods from the wild. Changes in soil fertility and the weather could have led people to begin farming. Unlike hunting and gathering food from the wild, farming can feed more people on the same size of land.
 
When animals were domesticated during Neolithic age, earlier cattle, goats and sheep were raised on farms on low scale. After the 18th century, agriculturists rapidly took animal husbandry to the next level and yielded more meat, wool, and milk day by day. A wide variety of species like horses, rabbits, guinea pud, and water buffalo were also used in some parts of the world. Intensive animal farming that involves maximum production with minimum cost has been adopted by the modern methods that made available thousands of chickens and high density feedlots. This helped in increasing the yield per area of land with an investment of a good amount of money and labor.
 
Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled the people to live in cities. Crop production, rather fodder production and grazing management started by the trampling of seed and the animals were the main consumers to provide food in the form of milk and meat.
 
Various factors determined the type of farming a farmer could adopt. Human resources such as distance to the market and labor availability, and physical factors such as soil and climate determine the best type of farming for any given area. Farmers have to choose farming types suitable for their unique local physical environment. They must also ensure that their produce would sell in the local market. Specific agricultural activities and what is produced determine the type of farming in question. So crop farming and animal husbandry were the two professions which collectively called animal agriculture and lead the life of the people.
 
Humans are dependent on both plants and animals for food; we raise animals for different food items of high nutrient value, including milk, meat, eggs and other products like fiber, wool and leather, etc. We deal with a branch of agriculture to provide day to day care, management, selective breeding, and thus raising livestock (domestic/farm animals) and the process is called Animal Husbandry. This science further deals with the practice of. livestock farming, like rearing and feeding, selective breeding and care of farm animals such as cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, camel, horses, mules and dog by human for their advantages and increasing living standards. Animals are a major source of income for human. Livestock has been sued to control the growth of weeds on Agricultural lands as the dry shrubs that are prone to fire are eaten up by different animals. Livestock production, since then, has been an integral part of crop farming and contributes in poverty alleviation through increased household income. According to a saying of a saga, “A land poor in Livestock is never rich and Land rich in Livestock is never poor.”
 
Recently an Agricultural Transformation Plan (in the previous regime) to the tune of 100 million (M) along with basic inputs, seeds & other needs and innovations was announced. Kissan Card was issued to farmers which provided them a subsidy of worth of Rs 4 M to the farmers. Some amount (10 M Rs) was allocated for 4 big centers in the country while farm mechanization was supposed to get 28 M last year (2020-2021). Subsidy cash transfer to farmers thru Kissan cards was available which was being supervised by the Agricultural Ministers, Secretaries and their teams.
 
The Animal Production aspect was under neglect since long time and no compassion has been shown to livestock production sector. Least budget enhancement or lack of any package supporting poor and resource limited livestock and poultry farming communities. This is the big reason that we could not get much benefit from investment in livestock that is being made on import of exotics animals and unrequired semen types and the dozes. The need of skilled production graduates in the field and their function to cope with modern digitalized farming have not been understood and realized in real sense. Some old research institutes, livestock farms, breeding farms and other organizations are getting deserted as no proper skilled manpower is there to handle the Livestock production and extension activities in the field and at Farms. No second line of researchers and scientists is available or ready to take over and continue the programs in progress.
 
Some people understand that import of semen and exotics is the animal breeding; they don’t understand what animal breed is, and what breeding management is and how the breeding plans can be implemented in the country. Many White Revolution schemes and Doodh Darya projects have met failures in the past and millions of Rs went in vein on such futile exercises due to the absence of proper planning and trained manpower for execution of good plans.
 
Our animals on an average are producing 4-6 liters per animal per day while 26-36 liters/d are taken on an average by the advanced countries. If proper management, breeding and feeding are given to our local Sahiwal and Buffaloes, these can produce 25-30 liters per animal or even more. Our animals have done wonder over the waters, they can yield maximum to their potential if required management and saved from scorching heats, following appropriate breeding plans and provided proper, ample and balance feeding facilities are extended to them. As per statement of the honorable PM Advisor, the Agriculture is usually taken as only wheat, cotton, maize and sugarcane crops, it was hostage between these a few (four) crops. Grains production is very important for us which are to the tune of ~ 2800 MT but neglecting milk, meat and eggs is also not justified. The milk produced (63 MT) in the country has a value priced to more than Rs 6300 million. The price of meat (beef, mutton, and others), from poultry and eggs also runs into Billion Rs. No reforms have been suggested for these precious products needed for our population.
 
The grain consumption per head in the country has improved from 200 kg to ~ 370 kg, while calories per head are ~ 2580 per day against an average value of 2900 calories as world average on global arena. The per capita milk availability in the country is ~ 172 liters, which is not guaranteed that it will be pure, wholesome and/or hygienic. The most calories in our country come from the food of crop origin while animal sources share is very less, resulting a disease called Kwashiorkor. This disease is branded by syndrome of infants and young children produced by a severe protein deficiency, characterized by changes in pigmentation of skin and hair, edema, pot belly anemia and apathy. Marasmus, a dying away disease or progressive wasting and emaciation of domestic animals is also common in some feed deficient areas due to deficiency of trace elements (cobalt, copper, etc.).
 
Policy shift have been announced and budget has been increased many folds (almost to 100 percent) for crops. Lot of other incentives like drip, IPM, precision agriculture and bio-pesticides are in place. Agri Ministers and Secretaries are on move in the field to encourage staff and farmers. These are good signs and needs appreciation, but we hope that In sha Allah these innovations and interventions will bring positive changes and improvement will make the crop sector more attractive and profitable. But a holistic approach for crop and livestock production can rescue our country from the clutches of the poverty and malnutrition.
 
The animal production sector need to be given priority and trained manpower should take over the production aspects of the livestock and poultry sector in the country. Some major changes are necessary in the educational curriculum to impart the both animal production and curative treatment degrees in animal sector. Broad based education should possess the basic degrees and later the specialization streams can be chosen to prepare the required set of graduates in crop, livestock and poultry sectors. Collection of basic data, needs assessments, ground realities, field surveys/requirements and Dept demands to meet the country’s need are to be accessed to have a safe and right take off.

Author : Prof (R) Dr Muhammad Younas