Staff Reporter
Karachi
Former chairman Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry Standing Committee on Agriculture, Ahmad Jawad has said that performance of agriculture sector had been declined.
In a statement issued here on Friday, Jawad said even after eight years of 18th amendment Sindh province was launched its first agri policy following Punjab launched after nine years, Balochistan yet to finalize and in KPK revision of policy draft are on cards. That shows a lack of capacity
He said, if we look towards leading economies like India, USA, Brazil, Israel, China etc; agriculture is a federal subject there because they know the importance of this sector.
In this regard a pro-farmer enabling environment is imperative to make Pakistan’s agriculture sector globally competitive for that agriculture should be back to federal government, he added.
The former chairman FPCCI’s Standing Committee on Agriculture said that after the devolution, food and agriculture is predominantly a provincial subject while food security and exports are a federal subject, is yet to find out how food security would be implemented when food matters was not in your hands; he questioned
One must understand agriculture is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy and is an inevitable and integral part to ensure food issue and economic up rise of the country. About 68% of the population engaged in farming directly or indirectly through production, processing and distribution of major agriculture commodities. Nobody can deny the importance of agriculture in national economy, as it contributes about 21pc of our GDP.
The rising agricultural surplus caused by increasing agricultural production and productivity tends to improve social welfare, particularly in rural areas. Even there is no direct tax on the agricultural income, but indirectly government receives a huge amount of tax from agricultural sector.
