Agriculture in Pakistan has a specific role to play in fostering economic development, eradicating poverty, and preserving the environment.
Agriculture in Pakistan, which contributes more than 20% of the country’s GDP and more than 50% of employment, has a specific role to play in fostering economic development, eradicating poverty, and preserving the environment.
At over 3% a year, agricultural growth over the previous thirty years has been spectacular. The sources of growth, however, have evolved through time, starting with the 1960s’ seed, fertiliser, and irrigation package, intensifying in the 1970s with increased water and fertiliser use, and then improving with better crop management and incentives in the 1980s.
Further into the 2000s, it changes its direction towards crop improvement and yield improvement technologies to fulfil the needs of the whole emerging population of the country.
In addition, local growth will be heavily influenced by agriculture. In national capitals and the boardrooms of significant food and agribusiness firms, the major orientations for agricultural development have been established for more than 50 years.
The design of agriculture as a base for locally-led, context-specific, stakeholder-led development must change in the twenty-first century. It is crucial to take note of this since there is an increasing call for agricultural development to be shaped in a more democratic manner to match local interests regarding land use, the use of agricultural inputs, priority crops, and ecosystem management.
States and municipalities are claiming a stronger say in how their own development processes are shaped, alongside community and farmer-based organisations.
According to a local survey, genetically modified varieties have far more sustainability in this new world of issues such as continuously raising levels of heat, suddenly drastic changes in climate, drought, salinity, etc.
This fast pace wants faster methods to be implanted, and this can be done by using genetic engineering technology in agriculture.
Genetic engineering techniques are only employed after all other methods have failed, i.e., when the trait to be introduced is absent from the crop’s genetics, the trait is very difficult to improve by conventional breeding methods, and it will take a very long time to introduce or improve such a trait by conventional breeding methods.
Transgenic or genetically modified (GM) crops are those created by genetic engineering. Its basic aim is to increase crop production; hence, it can fulfil the criteria. Modern plant breeding is a multidisciplinary and coordinated process that makes use of and integrates numerous tools and components from conventional breeding techniques, bioinformatics, molecular genetics, molecular biology, and genetic engineering.
As old as agriculture itself, crop improvement refers to the engineering of plants for human benefit. Primitive people switched from hunting and gathering to farming about 10,000 years ago. The process of constantly enhancing the plants that provide us with food, fibre, and livestock started when the switch was turned on.
By enhancing agricultural productivity and income, the sector directly contributes to eradicating poverty by providing employment opportunities and improving the living standards of rural populations.
Welldone! Very informative article