Leading business organisations in Pakistan have funded PAC to create commercially viable business models for the expansion of the nation’s agricultural sector.
An official of the Pakistan Agricultural Coalition (PAC) claimed on Monday that Pakistan loses $1 billion annually as a result of using poor seed and antiquated farming techniques for its three main crops: wheat, cotton, and maize.
The annual production of rice, corn, and wheat is valued at $12 billion, according to PAC Strategy Advisor Kazim Saeed, but $1 billion is lost each year as a result of poor seed, supply chain poor and storage issues.
The PAC contends that for Pakistan’s agriculture to be competitive on a global scale, it must be driven by the private sector, technology, and entrepreneurship.
The PAC will host Pakistan’s first “Agri-Connections Event 2023” in Karachi on March 16, 2023. The purpose of the event is to link Pakistan’s agriculture sector with business, finance, the government, and the rest of the world.
The annual conference and exhibition of the PAC will be held for the first time this year, and it will feature a variety of sessions on topics like Pakistan’s agriculture and opportunities in the global economy, investment opportunities in agriculture, increasing growers’ profitability, sustainable agriculture and climate change, access to capital, maize for poultry, dairy, investment for import substitution, reversing Pakistan’s trade deficit through agri-commodities, and tech and innovation.
Leading business organisations in Pakistan have funded PAC to create commercially viable business models for the expansion of the nation’s agricultural sector.
According to Kazim, the goal of PAC is to accelerate this transformation through coordinated action from important parties, including growers, the federal and provincial governments, the private sector (including agribusinesses and industry), development partners, financial institutions, academic institutions, and consumer advocacy organisations.
The first electronic warehouse receipts system in Pakistan is one of the PAC’s signature initiatives. By using commodities as collateral for loans, this regime is giving farmers access to capital. It is also strongly incentivizing crop testing, grading, and standardization, proper storage, a decrease in post-harvest losses, and the preservation of crop quality for export.
Two billion rupees’ worth of warehouse receipts have already been issued over the course of three seasons. In order to encourage investment in this crucial area of the agri-economy, PAC also persuaded USAID to fund a feasibility study on grain storage.
In August 2019 through December 2020, the study was carried out by a number of experts under the direction of Kazim Saeed of PAC. The financial model and study’s recommendations are actively being used to support advocacy efforts for the regime and persuade stakeholders in the agri-sector to spend money on storage facilities.
A multi-year programme for increasing Pakistan’s rice exports by mechanising rice cultivation was developed and put into action by PAC in collaboration with the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP). The project aims to increase farm productivity, decrease post-harvest losses (15–20%), and significantly boost rice exports over the following few years.