ACCORDING to the Investopedia, food drives the world; apart from clean water, access to adequate food is the primary concern for most people on earth. This makes agriculture one of the largest and most significant industries in the world. Agricultural productivity is important not only for a country’s balance of trade, but the security and health of its population as well. Hence, according to the Crops Review by Ben Bareja, “Agriculture is the art and science of growing plants and other crops and raising animals for food, raw material for the industry, fuel for household and other human needs, or economic gains.
According to the Minnesota State Department of Revenue USA’s Website, Agricultural production is a series of activities that result in a product that will ultimately be sold at retail. Agricultural production includes these activities (when they result in a product that will be sold at retail): Agriculture, cultivating soil, planting, raising and harvesting crops, rearing, feeding and managing animals Aquaculture that is raising, private aquatic animals (fish); Floriculture, which means growing flowering plants; Horticulture, that is growing fruits, vegetable, plant and Silviculture which is growing and caring for forest trees.
Apart from the fact that the agriculture ensures food security in a country, its enhanced production also enables a country to export its products and earn the valuable foreign exchange. Agriculture is one of the largest and most significant industries in the world, so taking measures to increase production levels is key for the security and health of a country’s population as well as to export its products to earn the foreign exchange as well.
For Pakistan, being an agricultural country with a lot of land under cultivation and available vacant land to bring it into cultivation and with the best irrigation system in the world, it is necessary to increase agricultural production in all sectors for ensuring its food security. At the same time, it is much more important to substantially increase Pakistan’s agricultural production to strengthen its weak economy by increasing the export of agricultural goods to earn the valuable forex exchange, required to return foreign loans without taking further loans.
Now let us see for reference and as a guide, the top agricultural producing and exporting countries in the world. Of the major cereal and vegetable crops, the United States, China, India, Russia and Ukraine frequently appear as top producers. China is not only the leading worldwide producer of rice, but it’s also the leading producer of wheat and the number two producer of corn, as well as the largest producer of many vegetables, including onion and cabbage. In terms of total production, the United States is fourth in wheat and first in corn and second in soybeans, Since China and India have large populations, their lot of production is used internally, hence the list of the top exporting countries is different.
The US, Netherlands, France, Germany and Brazil are top exporting countries of agricultural products. The Netherlands exports the high value flowers and live plants to nearly half of the global total and is the leading supplier of tomatoes and chillies. In exporting rice, corn, wheat, beans, lentils and animal proteins, countries like the United States, Germany, Canada, Brazil and Thailand feature more prominently. China is at the top in the export of Fish, Indonesia is at the top in exporting Palm Oil and Thailand in the export of Rice.
According to the conclusion of a researched article entitled, “When too much isn’t enough: Does current food production meet global nutritional needs”?, published online in the National Library of Medicine of the US, on 23October 2018, although world’s current food production is sufficient to meet the caloric needs of the world’s population, to provide a nutritionally balanced diet per person per day to the world population, the world currently over-produces grains, fats and sugars while greatly under-produce the fruit and vegetable and, to a smaller extent, proteins.
Therefore, it is obvious that in the future the world countries will have to produce more vegetables, fruits and meat, poultry and fish and dairy based protein. Although due to a lengthy supply chain and import impediments/restrictions, countries of South Asia, especially Pakistan will need to enhance the production of cereals, starches, sugars, pulses, vegetables, fruits, sheep farming and fish farming to meet domestic needs/reduce imports/prices and export more to the regional countries to earn the foreign exchange to boost its fore reserves.
To enhance the production of agriculture-related products discussed earlier and to produce good quality seeds, Pakistan needs to adopt new technologies and methods of agriculture which should be simple to operate and multiply the production. Presently, although Pakistan ranks eighth in the world in grain producing countries, it is still behind in its per acre output as compared with many countries, whereas in the 1960s Pakistan had been a leading agricultural country in Asia. To quickly multiply the yields of crops, vegetable, fruit, dairy products and fish, Pakistan should learn from China, which has simple but the most modern agricultural machinery and the production techniques, which help in increasing the yields manifold.
To get technology and learn new production techniques from China, Pakistan should send a delegation of agriculture department officials and farmers to see the things for themselves, also by visiting agricultural farms in China, the simplicity and efficiency of its machinery and techniques of production. As China has already committed to assisting Pakistan in the agricultural sector as part of the CPEC project, Pakistan should move speedily to modernize its agriculture and increase its production, with the assistance of China. In the above context, Pakistan’s federal and provincial agriculture departments should also be activated to play a major role in assisting our farmers in facilitating the provision of Chinese agricultural machinery by providing financial and technical assistance and advising the farmers on the new production methods/techniques.
—The writer is also a former Research Fellow of IPRI and Senior Research Fellow of SVI Islamabad.
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