Agribusiness is the combination of the words “Agriculture” and “Business”. It refers to any business related to farming that is used for commercial income purposes.
Agribusiness is the combination of the words “Agriculture” and “Business”. It refers to any business related to farming that is used for commercial income purposes.
Agribusiness acts as a medium between agriculture and business. It is the art of nourishing the earth’s resources and growing them to meet the demands of the population.
It combines innovation and sustainability, where farmers become scientists and fields become laboratories. Agribusiness, a combination of agriculture and business, is the way that it connects farmers, suppliers, processors, and consumers. It is the heartbeat of our food system, which pulsates for the growth, efficiency, and engagement of the crops.
Agriculture is one of the broad sectors of the Pakistani economy. It contributes about 20% to the GDP of Pakistan. It employs around 42.3% of the country’s workforce and provides raw materials to many industries. The industries include textiles, sugar, food processing, etc.
Contribution of Agribusiness in Pakistan:
Agriculture in Pakistan is a great employer of labour. It is also an essential sector of public life, livelihood, and foreign exchange. The population of Pakistan is putting pressure on the agriculture sector not only to enhance production but also to make it available in the future.
The team at the World Bank has developed various search products to boost Pakistan’s income. It is also transforming its agro-food system to achieve higher productivity.
In Pakistan, it contributes its part in numerous ways, which are:
Food Security:
Agriculture is the basic source of food for Pakistan’s increasing population. Three main principles are used to improve the world’s food security: food production, food availability, and food affordability.
Let’s have a brief look at each of these principles.
Food production:
We know the world is increasing its population, but not all places are growing food at the same rate. The high population needs more food, which increases demand on the food value chain from valuable food consumption, which is 22.49 percent.
The agriculture sector contributes about 20 percent to GDP. However, it also exports about 4.4 billion of Agro-food production throughout the world.
Food availability:
Food availability means making food available for everyone. In the past, there was much less availability of food. But due to new technologies and the principles of Agribusiness, it became possible to increase food availability for everyone.
The farmers need valuable methods in the form of equipment and machinery to operate the soil. Modern agribusiness meets its requirements and produces food for the benefit of mankind. Agribusiness provides more and more food and makes it available in every place in the country.
Food affordability:
To increase affordability, either the cost of food must decrease or the buying power of consumers must increase. Both should happen to improve food affordability.
However, agriculture’s performance during 2020–21 stands for encouragement. It increased by 2.77 percent, against the target of 2.8 percent. The growth of major crops (wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, and cotton) during 2020–21 was 4.65 percent.
The major kharif crops, such as maize, sugarcane, and rice, have increased their production and beat the targets set last year. The production of rice increased by 8.419 million tonnes from 7.414 million tonnes, and the production of sugarcane was 81.009 million tons from 66.380 million tons.
The maize has also increased its production by 8.465 million tons from 7.883 million tons. Thus, it plays a basic role in ensuring food security for the pride of the country. It also made food affordable for all communities in the country.
Economic Growth:
Agribusiness, a combination of Agriculture and business, is a contributor to Pakistan’s economy. It gives its best services to millions of people and stabilises the country’s economic growth. It generates a large portion of its foreign exchange by exporting its crops, livestock, and fisheries.
With the help of USAID, Pakistan is investing in the private sector to increase incomes, sales, and jobs. Agribusiness provides a good environment for economic development and links one country to another, opening the doors for trade across borders to increase regional connectivity and productivity.
Currently, it performs many works, which are:
- More than one million rural people are getting benefits from USAID investments. Pakistan is improving agricultural practises and supporting economic growth with the help of USAID.
- It invested more than 500 million dollars in the private sector to support agriculture and small and medium enterprises.
- Helped firms and farms increase the value of their sales by more than 866 million dollars. Agribusiness also created over 89 thousand new jobs.
- Pakistan has developed about 100 economic growth policies and provided many schemes. It also exported about 120 million dollars in targeted commodities throughout the world.
- Agribusiness helped Pakistan introduce about 57 new varieties of crops. These varieties are high-yielding and disease-resistant in wheat and maize. It improved the rate of security and export time.
Employment Opportunities and Rural Development:
Agribusiness gives employment opportunities to thousands of people in Pakistan. It plays a significant role as an employer in rural areas and gives jobs to both skilled and unskilled labourers.
It performed as a central driver of rural progress in Pakistan. Provides income-generating possibilities for rural development, improves their living standards, and contributes to poverty reduction.
The challenges faced by Agribusiness in Pakistan:
Deficit of Modern Techniques:
The new technological methods are adapted to meet the requirements of developing farmers and increase their productivity from their land. But people in some communities are still cultivating and harvesting their crops using simple machetes like sickles.
The distribution of technology is very hard to coordinate among local communities. Many communities are restricted both by the flow of available cash, their remoteness, and their lack of awareness. There is often no way for the poor community to develop technologies or to create ways to purchase them.
Rural people know about the presence of modern technologies. But they do not believe that they will be able to have the opportunity to own and use technologies themselves. Most of the farmers in Pakistan still use traditional farming methods and techniques.
Insufficient knowledge of modern techniques results in low productivity, improper use of resources, and poor-quality products. It consumes the time and energy of the farmers because they do not have the necessities.
In this way, they reduce the energy with which they can engage in other meaningful activities. Due to this reason, the cost of agricultural, industrial, and industrial machinery may be suffocated. If they were awakened to the importance of modern technologies, Agribusiness would not suffer from these challenges.
Water Scarcity:
Pakistan has Agricultural land, and agriculture depends on water. Our country, Pakistan, is facing a serious water crisis. The country is rapidly moving towards a phenomenon of water called “water stress,” which means water scarcity.
The crisis of water can be rolled out by a few key facts:
Pakistan is facing a dangerous water scarcity problem. The agricultural sector is dependent on water for irrigation as its main source of livelihood. The deficiency of water affects the crop, productivity, yields, and overall production.
If we talk about Pakistan’s classification, it contains around 92 percent of the semi-arid to dry range. The vast majority of Pakistan depends on a single irrigation unit called the Indus River. About 90 percent of the country’s Agricultural production comes from irrigated land under the Indus Irrigation System (Qureshi, 2011).
Alongside the Indus River, it also depends on groundwater and rainfall. In Pakistan, rainfall occurs from 150mm to 250mm, which is not sufficient for crops because a good crop requires 1500mm. In this way, we are also wasting fresh water day by day and going towards scarcity.
Since gaining independence in 1947, Pakistan’s population has increased by more than four times. By 2040, its population will increase more than tenfold. It means they will require a lot of water for their lives and for agriculture.
Pakistan’s water storage capacity is also limited due to a lack of dams and storage facilities. If there is no action by the government and individual persons on such facilities, then we will come towards productivity.
Climate Change:
Climate change is a pointed challenge that is faced by Agribusiness, a combination of agriculture and business, in Pakistan. Extreme weather conditions such as floods, droughts, and heat waves are becoming more frequent, affecting crop yields and production.
Infrastructural Issues:
Pakistan’s agricultural sector is facing a lot of issues, such as poor storage facilities, transportation, and market access. The farmers lack knowledge about modern Agribusiness. These issues result in post-harvest losses, decreased efficiency, and increased costs.
Conclusion:
Agribusiness, a combination of Agriculture and business, is a prime sector in Pakistan’s economy, contributing to food security, economic growth, employment, and rural development. However, the sector is facing several challenges that need to be pointed out to ensure its sustainable growth.
The government needs to invest in introducing better farming techniques, modernising agriculture, and providing the necessary infrastructure. By solving these challenges, Pakistan can achieve better competitiveness, productivity, and sustainability in its agricultural sector and boost agribusiness.