High Food Prices Boost Pakistan's Rural Economy

Since taking the reins of power almost three years ago, the coalition government in Islamabad, which is led by the Pakistan Peoples' Party, has been increasing the support prices of wheat and other agricultural commodities every year. This policy has had the following effects:

1. It is transferring the additional new income of about Rs. 300 billion in the current fiscal year alone to the ruling party's power base of landowners in small towns and villages, from those working in the urban industrial and service sectors.

2. It has driven up food prices dramatically for all Pakistanis, particularly hurting the poor people the most.

3. It has reduced government tax revenues because the agricultural income is not taxed by either the federal or the provincial governments, and resulted in growing budget deficits.

4. It has significantly increased demand for consumer and industrial goods and services in the rural areas.

5. It has forced the State Bank of Pakistan to maintain a tight monetray policy which is drying up the much-needed credit for the industries and the average consumers alike.

6. It's likely to slow rural-to-urban migration and relieve pressure on major cities and their inadequate infrastructure.



In 2008, the government pushed the procurement price of wheat up from Rs. 625 per 40 kg to Rs. 950 per 40 kg. This action immediately triggered inflationary pressures that have continued to persist as food accounts for just over 40% of Pakistan's consumer price index. According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) analysis, cumulative price of wheat surged by 120 per cent since 2008, far higher than the 40 per cent between 2003 and 2007. it is also many times greater than the international market price increase of 22 per cent for wheat in the same period. Similarly, sugar prices have surged 184 per cent higher since 2008, compared with 46 per cent increase during 2003-07.

The transfer of additional Rs. 300 billion to Pakistan's agriculture sector during the current fiscal year 2010-2011 by higher prices of agriculture produce and direct flood compensation to 1.6 million affected families at the rate of one hundred thousands rupees each will boost economic confidence in the countryside. It will generate rural demand for consumer items including consumer durables such as fans, TVs, motorcycles, cars, refrigerators, etc.

The big feudal landowners have been the biggest beneficiaries of the PPP's gift of high crop prices. However, the policy has helped small farmers as well, as shown by a recent survey reported by The Nation newspaper. The survey of 300 farmers in Sind's Sukkur district was conducted by Sukkur Institute of Business Administration for the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). It has highlighted the following about district's rural economy:

1. In Sukkur district, majority of the farmers are subsistence farmers. 31 percent of them own less than 5 acres of land, and another 34 percent own up to 12.5 acres of land.

2. They spend an average of Rs. 1,611 a month on their children's education, with some of them spending up to Rs. 12,000 a month.

3. Wheat, rice, cotton and sugarcane are the major crops being cultivated by 93 per cent, 58 percent, 37 percent and 12 percent of the respondent farmers in that order.

4. 24 percent of them are also growing fruits including dates, mangoes and bananas.

5. 22 percent of the respondent own livestock.

6. About half (49 percent) use privately purchased seeds for wheat cultivation, 33 perecent use their own retained seed and 18 perecent use the seed purchased from Public Sector Seed Corporations.

7. On average, a farmer uses 96.73 Kg chemical fertilizer per acre with the maximum and minimum of 350 Kg and 40 Kg respectively. The average per acre cost of wheat production is Rs. 10,670.

8. All 300 farmers are using tractors for cultivation and preparing land for crops, and some are using tractors for fetching their crop produce to market.

Already, the upside of the government policy is that Pakistan's rural economy is being spurred by high crop prices that may help the GDP growth this year and next. Increased farm incomes are whetting the rural households' appetite for industrial and consumer goods in 2011 and beyond.



A key indicator of growing rural economy is the double digit increase in the sale of tractors. Millat Tractors Limited, the largest supplier of tractors in Pakistan, had record sales of 41,500 tractors in the calendar year 2010, an increase of nearly 11% over 37,537 tractors sold in 2009. Of these 41,500 tractors, a record 5000 tractors were sold in the month of Dec, 2010 alone, acording to The Nation newspaper. Millat sold 10,000 units under Benazir Tractor Scheme and 5,000 units under the Sindh government tractor scheme in the last fiscal year. Another 10,000 units were sold as part of the Punjab government scheme, 70 per cent of the units were sold, according to Dawn News.

Earlier, the sales of Fiat and Massey Ferguson tractors grew to 1,632 and 3,194 units in September 2010 from 537 and 3,100 in August 2010. The overall sales of these tractors rose to 13,931 during July-September 2010 as compared to 12,690 units in the same period of 2009, according to Dawn news.

Over 50 per cent of the motorcycles and 40-45 per cent of cars in Pakistan are purchased by people living in rural areas. Total car sales in July-September 2010(including Suzuki Bolan) rose by 12 per cent to 30,030 units as compared to 26,812 units in the same period of 2009, according to Pakistan Automotive Manufactureres Association PAMA). Furqan Punjani of Topline Securities said car sales are expected to reach 154,000 units by the end of June 2011.

In addition to rising demand for cars and tractors, there is also an upward trend in two-wheeler sales. The cumulative sales of motorcycles in July-September 2010 rose to 126,701 units from 105,862 units in the same period of 2009.

While it is good to see Pakistan's rural farm economy perk up, it is also important to recognize that the overall national economic outlook can not improve significantly unless the growing budget deficits and rising inflation are brought under control. And this will require the ruling feudal elite to pitch in by paying their fair share of income tax on their rising farm incomes. It is time for them to lead by example.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Pakistan's Exports and Remittances Rise to New Highs

Sugar Crisis in Pakistan

Agricultural Growth in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

Pakistan's Rural Economic Survey

Pakistan's KSE Outperforms BRIC Exchanges in 2010

High Cost of Failure to Aid Flood Victims

Karachi Tops Mumbai in Stock Performance

India and Pakistan Contrasted in 2010

Pakistan's Decade 1999-2009

Musharraf's Economic Legacy

World Bank Report on Rural Poverty in Pakistan

USAID Report on Pakistan Food & Agriculture

Copper, Gold Deposits Worth $500 Billion at Reko Diq, Pakistan

China's Trade and Investment in South Asia

India's Twin Deficits

Pakistan's Economy 2008-2010

Comments

Riaz Haq said…
In terms of export potential, California argriculture industry offers a model for developing nations.

Take almonds for example.

After making big investments in almonds in the past few years, California farmers are seeing their efforts pay off with predictions their recent harvest will be a record 1.65 billion pounds or more, according to Businessweek.

The big harvest comes amid strong worldwide demand and relatively high prices. Exports to China have increased eight times in the past five years, and India and Pakistan doubled their almond consumption in that time. Even with a record harvest, there's no risk California, the world's No. 1 almond producer, will saturate the market, industry experts said.

The Golden State has seen a big growth in almond orchards in the past five years as farmers shifted from less profitable vegetables to lucrative nuts. California now has 810,000 acres planted in almonds -- a 25 percent increase from a decade ago -- and produces 80 percent of the world's supply. Spain is the second-biggest producer, but its harvest is only a fraction of California's.

The state's most recent crop appeared uncertain after cold wind and rain last spring partially disrupted pollination of the trees' pink and white blooms. But recent forecasts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted a record crop with at least a 17 percent increase from the previous year.

"The nut crops in general are looking good in California," said John Edstrom, who recently retired after 26 years as a Colusa County farm advisor. The market is generating "cautious optimism" among walnut, pistachio and pecan growers as well, he said.

California farmers began shifting to almonds when increases in fertilizer and other costs made it harder to make money on row crops, such as tomatoes and onions. When almond prices spiked to more than $2.80 per pound in 2006, growers leapt to plant 49,000 acres of new trees. After five years, those trees are now bearing significant fruit, contributing to the record 2010 harvest.

Improved agricultural techniques used by California's 6,000 almond growers, such as planting trees closer together, cutting back on pruning and knocking hollow shells off trees during winter to control a debilitating pest called the navel orangeworm, also have helped boost production, said Bruce Lampinen, an almond specialist at the University of California, Davis.

Farmers said they are concerned about a loss of bees with major die-offs in recent years. UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen said bees are still available, though they are more expensive. The cost of renting them has doubled to $150 per acre over the past five years.

Water shortages also have been a concern for some, although Almond Board chairman Mike Mason said they haven't been so bad as to affect the whole industry.
Riaz Haq said…
There seems to be consensus developing among Pakistani economists that "prompt measures needed to control rising inflation", according to a report in Daily Times:

LAHORE: Pakistan is fast heading towards higher inflation and to overcome this grim scenario; improvement in governance coupled with a drastic cut in expenditure and revenue generation is crucial.

The doom and gloom scenario needs an urgent handling. Good governance, good policies, good institutions, good macroeconomic management are the drivers of economic growth that have gone dormant for quite some time. This was the crux of the speeches delivered at Economic Dialogue 2011 held at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday. Senior economist Dr Akmal Hussain said the country is facing its gravest economic crisis in history after 1971. He said the economy is in deep recession, poverty along with high inflation is a recipe for disaster.

Unfortunately, he added, the government has zero fiscal space. He warned that Pakistan was heading towards higher inflation if immediate improvement in governance is not accompanied with cut in expenditure and substantial increase in revenue.

The former WB Executive Abid Hassan said that the institutional decay has now started taking its toll and the government should take appropriate measures on emergent basis to stop this decay. He said that with every passing day the country is going deeper and deeper into the economic mire. “Today we have reached a situation where even an economic stimulus would not work. The government should concentrate on tax collection and controlling unnecessary expenditures. Unless and until these two measures are not taken, the economy would not be able to be back on rails,” he said. The PIDE Vice Chancellor Dr Rashid Amjad said that the present day doom and gloom scenario could be changed by overcoming the acute energy shortage being witnessed by the country. The issue of circular debt needs to be taken care of by those sitting at the helm of affairs. “PSDP has a multiplier effect on the employment and economy. It should not be cut,” he said.

Former chief Economist Planning Commission Dr Pervaiz Tahir blamed the political chaos for our economic woes and termed the dictatorship democracy cycle as mother of all ills.

Energy sector expert Munawar Baseer, ex Executive committee member Almas Hyder and LCCI President Shahzad Ali Malik while appreciating the input provided by the economists said that most of the issues and challenges faced by the country are more of political. The political leadership while realizing the sensitivity of the situation should come up with a solid solution with close coordination with the chambers. “The policies are being made in isolation without the consultation of real stakeholders and that’s why the economic situation today has become more complex and directionless,” he said. The speakers said that the business community should be involved for the sake of correct decision-making.

They urged the government to evolve a more realistic and pragmatic framework by putting an end to inter-provincial disparity and the disparities within the province. The government should re-do its priority list and concentrate on the few areas that come on the top of that priority list.

It is very unfortunate, the speakers said, that the country has become the most inhospitable for both the local and the foreign investors for security reasons.

“Our inability to reach a consensus on water issue and inability to tap hydrocarbon potential of Balochistan has virtually pushed us to the wall,” they said. staff report
Riaz Haq said…
Thousands of Indian illegal immigrants are slipping into Texas from Mexico, according to LA Times:

Reporting from Harlingen, Texas — Thousands of immigrants from India have crossed into the United States illegally at the southern tip of Texas in the last year, part of a mysterious and rapidly growing human-smuggling pipeline that is backing up court dockets, filling detention centers and triggering investigations.

The immigrants, mostly young men from poor villages, say they are fleeing religious and political persecution. More than 1,600 Indians have been caught since the influx began here early last year, while an undetermined number, perhaps thousands, are believed to have sneaked through undetected, according to U.S. border authorities.

Hundreds have been released on their own recognizance or after posting bond. They catch buses or go to local Indian-run motels before flying north for the final leg of their months-long journeys.

"It was long … dangerous, very dangerous," said one young man wearing a turban outside the bus station in the Rio Grande Valley town of Harlingen.

The Indian migration in some ways mirrors the journeys of previous waves of immigrants from far-flung places, such as China and Brazil, who have illegally crossed the U.S. border here. But the suddenness and still-undetermined cause of the Indian migration baffles many border authorities and judges.

The trend has caught the attention of anti-terrorism officials because of the pipeline's efficiency in delivering to America's doorstep large numbers of people from a troubled region. Authorities interview the immigrants, most of whom arrive with no documents, to ensure that people from neighboring Pakistan or Middle Eastern countries are not slipping through.

There is no evidence that terrorists are using the smuggling pipeline, FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials said.

The influx shows signs of accelerating: About 650 Indians were arrested in southern Texas in the last three months of 2010 alone. Indians are now the largest group of immigrants other than Latin Americans being caught at the Southwest border.
Riaz Haq said…
Here's an interesting assessment of Pakistan's economy in 2H-2010:

...“The country’s exports, money sent by overseas Pakistanis, balance-of-payments position and foreign exchange reserves have reflected an encouraging growth during July-December FY11, showing strong signs of improvement in the economy,” Saad-bin-Naseer, CEO of Pearl Capital, told Central Asia Online January 28. Pakistan’s exports were $10.97 billion, an increase of US $1.88 billion, in the first six months of FY11.

That 21% increase was a very positive sign for the growth of export-oriented industry and the national economy, he said.

In FY11 exports could cross the $22 billion mark for the first time because of a significant increase in the value of Pakistani products on world markets, Naseer added.

“The textile industry had taken the lead by fetching $1.28 billion in additional foreign exchange through exports,” Anisul Haq, secretary of All Pakistan Textile Mills, told Central Asia Online.“The textile industry had taken the lead by fetching $1.28 billion in additional foreign exchange through exports,” Anisul Haq, secretary of All Pakistan Textile Mills, told Central Asia Online by telephone from Lahore. “From July-December FY11 textile exports increased to $6.28 billion” compared to 2010 figures.

Total annual textile exports could exceed $13 billion for the first time, he added. In 2009-10, they totalled $10.5 billion.
“The textile industry had taken the lead by fetching $1.28 billion in additional foreign exchange through exports,” Anisul Haq, secretary of All Pakistan Textile Mills, told Central Asia Online.
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Another pillar of the economy is remittances from overseas Pakistanis. The money they sent home increased by $780m in the first half of FY11, to $5.3 billion, Haq said.

“We hope the country would receive $11 billion from overseas Pakistanis in 2010-11 with major increase in inflows from Pakistanis staying in Arab countries and other western countries,” Haq said.

Foreign aid from institutions and countries, not just individuals, helped. The disbursement of $633m in coalition support and the extension that the IMF gave the government for imposing the Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) helped improve some of the major economic indicators, Naseer said.

The picture did much to bolster Pakistan’s balance sheet, which has had its ups and downs. Pakistan recorded a current account surplus in the first six months of the fiscal year, which enabled growth in foreign exchange reserves and stabilised the dollar-rupee exchange rate, Pearl Capital’s Naseer added.

In 2009-10, the country incurred a $2.5 billion current account deficit from July-December, but for the same period in 2010-11 it enjoyed a surplus of $26m – a dazzling switch from red ink to black, he said.

The robust performance of exports and remittances enabled Pakistan to accrue a record $17.3 billion in foreign exchange reserves by January 21, he said.

Investor confidence has grown in response to these positive indicators. The stock market capitalisation grew to $36 billion in January 2011 from $32 billion in October 2010, he said, adding that such growth would encourage foreign and local investment.
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warned.

Islamabad, which still hasn’t imposed the RGST the IMF wants, doesn’t collect enough taxes, Khan said. It levies only about 9% of GDP against the required international standard of a minimum 15% tax-to-GDP ratio, Khan said.

The government must implement tax reform, reduce reliance on borrowing from the IMF and generate its own resources to enhance tax revenues and to bolster economic growth, he added.

Serious efforts to solve chronic gas and power shortages are also imperative, he said.
Riaz Haq said…
With rising cotton and yarn prices, Pakistan has the potential to export $50 billion in textiles, according to a report in Gulf Today:

KARACHI: Pakistan has a potential of at least $50 billion in value-added textile exports if human resource in this sector is fully developed, said Textile Commissioner Muhammad Idrees.

Addressing the closing ceremony of 9th round of apparel manufacturing and management training programme at the Readymade Garments Technical Training Institute, the official said that the present volume of exports was not at all satisfactory.

The stakeholders could easily double this volume by improving skills of workers and through compliance with the standards of buyers, he added.

The skills development programme comprised one-month training, which covered cutting, sewing, production management, industrial engineering and quality control. Experts and consultants from Technopak, a world renowned consultancy firm, were hired for the training.

Thirty-one master trainers or middle management professionals from Artistic Milliners, Naz Textiles, Rajby Industries and Selimpex International and Soorty Enterprises attended the ninth round of training project.

The training project has so far been successfully implemented in 30 factories in Sindh and has trained 279 master trainers/middle management professionals and 3,693 workers.

The project delivered complete training system, course curriculum, manuals and consulting guidelines to the factories. Training manuals are also translated into Urdu language to transfer appropriate knowledge and skills to workers.

Pakistan’s textile sector is optimistic about meeting the annual export target, as high cotton prices in domestic and international markets have caused an increase in prices of value-added textile products, industry people say.

The government had fixed the textile export target at $14 billion for the current fiscal year. Members of the textile sector are of the view that achieving the target is possible, as exports of highly value-added items such as knitwear and garments have increased in terms of value.

Statistics released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) show the textile sector has performed well in the first half (July to December) of the current fiscal year, as its exports increased by 25.79 per cent as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

The industry, however, believes they would need to import up to five million bales of cotton because the 11 million bales produced so far in the country will not meet the requirements as some of the crop has been destroyed by flood.

The industrialists also expressed reservations about gas shortage in the country that has already caused a huge loss to the industry, particularly in Punjab. All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association Chairman Maqsood Ahmad Butt stressed that cotton prices reached Rs13,000 per maund (37.324 kg) and the sector may face a shortage of cotton in June if India did not lift the ban on exports.

“There is a possibility that exports will cross $14 billion target if cotton shortages are met and gas supply is restored,” he opined.
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a report in The News on how Pakistan's Engro company sees the economy:

KARACHI: Engro Corporation remains unsure about Pakistan’s economic trajectory as the country battles militants and tries to contain a growing fiscal deficit, a top company official said on Tuesday.

“Nobody knows what will happen in the coming months,” said Ruhail Mohammad, Engro’s Chief Financial Officer. “I have my numbers worked out. I know where sales and profit will be. But things are changing so fast that being sure remains almost impossible.”

Political and economic events of the past six months that saw the government retreating on key reforms such as raising taxes and cutting borrowing from the central bank have left businesses without a firm outlook, he said.

Although Engro posted a 79 percent rise in yearly profit to Rs6.8 billion in 2010, it continues to face problems, he said. “The policy of gas curtailment to fertiliser-makers is unjustified. The government has given us a commitment for uninterrupted supply, especially for the new plant.”

Expansion of Engro’s flagship fertiliser plant completed last year. The corporation can now produce 2.3 million tons of urea annually.

Mohammad, who was briefing journalists a day after the announcement of corporation’s financial results, said that Engro has no problem with increase in the price of gas that is used for making fertilisers. “The government must increase the price of fertiliser. We have been saying it for the last two years,” he said. “The agricultural products such as cotton, rice and wheat have seen a substantial increase in price. Farmers have the capacity to absorb rise in cost of urea.”

He, however, said that contractual obligations must not be breached once it comes to the additional capacity of 1.3 million tons, which the corporation has recently added. “For this project, we were offered gas at concessional rates for making the investment.”

The price of feedstock gas, which is used for making fertiliser, is subsidised by the government through a controversial method of making textile and other industries pay a higher price for the fuel. This has been a bone of contention for years.

“The government will be giving Rs37 billion in subsidy on urea in 2011,” he said. “There is no justification for this at all.”

On the other hand, curtailment of gas, which is basically a raw material for fertiliser, brings down production and leaves the manufacturers with no option but to raise prices to make up for the lost sales, he said.

He said the corporation plans to list Engro Foods, Engro Energy and Fertilisers at the stock exchange this year.

Mohammad said that work on Engro Energy’s venture into mining of coal at Tharparkar, Sindh, for power generation continues. “China is showing a lot of interest in the project. Financing won’t be an issue.”

The corporation will need between $300 million and $350 million for the Thar project by the end of 2012, he said.

“We have been cited as a heavily indebted group but if you look at the books closely we generate Rs35 cash for every Rs100 of debt. I think that gives us a lot of room to easily pay off the loans.”
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a piece on "strategic philanthropy" in Pakistan as presented at Asian Philanthropy Conference:

Zubair Bhatti’s conference paper for the APPC Hanoi Conference shows many optimistic signs for the future of strategic philanthropy in Pakistan. Of the estimated six million Pakistanis living outside Pakistan, around 3.9 million sent home a total of US$5.5 billion from 2006 to 2007—through formal banking channels. The Ministry of Labor and Overseas Pakistanis even placed the estimated remittances at some US$8 billion—contributed by around 7 million persons “of Pakistani origin.”

And this isn’t even the good news yet. Even more positive is the observation that these remittances, and the philanthropic purposes for which they are sometimes allocated, are beginning to be “aimed at long-term social change,” showing the relative maturity of overseas Pakistanis when it comes to strategic giving. According to Bhatti: “Strategic giving is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan. Among the Muslims of the subcontinent, a proud tradition of philanthropy as an instrument of social change has long co-existed with the dominant impulse of helping the poor.” At present, more signs are pointing towards the giving public’s preference for institutional, if not strategic, methods and channels for giving. These include the following:

• The rising number of NGOs, as well as the increasing visibility of their work and their fund-raising activities;
• The proliferation of major advertisements on billboards, newspapers, and TV screens showing charitable organisations and their campaigns;
• The increasing willingness of donors to allocate their donations, including Zakat, to organisations “rather than to the poor in the family or immediate locality according to the traditional interpretation of Zakat;”
• The growing interest in corporate social responsibility among wealthy businessmen;
• American Pakistanis’ utilisation of personal foundations and funding organisations in allocating and disbursing large sums of money toward charitable causes; and
• The large percentage of funds being raised by local Pakistani NGOs from the diaspora community.

Bhatti cites several “drivers of change” in this shift toward a more strategic philanthropic perspective in Pakistan. First is the observation that overseas Pakistanis “are more educated, more aware, more affluent... than Pakistanis back home... [They] have seen the role of strategic philanthropy in [more advanced] societies.”

Next is the aging population of first-generation Pakistani emigrants and their propensity to be involved in charitable activities given their affluence, their prominence, and the amount of free time they have on their hands. Related to this is the rise in status of medical professionals who left Pakistan in the 1970s to study in medical colleges, and who now find themselves in a position “where they can use their financial resources and contacts to mobilize funds for their alma mater and other related social causes.”

As the population of Pakistani professionals in other countries matures and reaches out, so does the maturity and reach of its professional associations. Bhatti shares that, in the United States, the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent in North America (APNAA)—a 10,000-strong organisation—supports strategic philanthropy through health and education initiatives in rural areas. Also in the Unites States, “the growing size of remittances... represents greater opportunities for organized fund-raising.”
Riaz Haq said…
World Food Program Pakistan director says food prices too high in Pakistan, according to AFP:

GENEVA — Pakistan's government has pushed food prices too high for an impoverished population, as malnutrition levels rise despite the recovery of crops after devastating floods, a UN food relief official said Wednesday.

Wolfgang Herbinger, director for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Pakistan, said food crops especially wheat in the southern flood-hit plains were recovering fast with the prospect of decent crops over the coming weeks.

"The crop outlook is not bad but the food security situation remains difficult because prices remain so high," he told journalists one the sidelines of humanitarian meetings in Geneva.

"The government is the biggest buyer of wheat in Pakistan they are setting the farm gate price and they dominate market," Herbinger explained.

"That's why the wheat price in Pakistan didn't adjust when, for example, in 2009 and early 2010 the wheat price had gone back a lot, it stayed high to the detriment of local consumers."

Now ordinary consumers pay double the price for wheat compared to three years ago and the food security situation has "changed dramatically," the WFP official added.

Malnutrition levels in the southern province of Sindh have reached 21 to 23 percent, according to the agency.

"That is well above African standards. The emergency standard is 15 percent," the WFP official said.

A recent survey found that in some flood-hit areas 70 percent of people were taking out loans and even using them to pay for food.

Herbinger admitted that the WFP was "struggling a bit" to bring the message across to authorities.

"You may have the country full with food but people are too poor to buy it," he explained.

"We are working a lot with the Ministry of Agriculture to explain to the minister that it is not enough to have enough production in the country if people can't afford it."

"Maybe for political reasons he doesn't always understand it, that it's one thing to be nice to the farmers but if your consumers can't afford it then... there's something wrong with agricultural policy," Herbinger added.

Massive floods caused by monsoon rains in July and August 2010 killed thousands, destroyed 1.7 million homes and damaged 5.4 million acres of arable land, experts have said.
Riaz Haq said…
Here's Pakistan PPP govt's defense of high wheat prices in Pakistan, as reported by the BBC:

Lowering wheat prices would create food shortages in Pakistan and encourage smuggling, officials say, responding to criticism from the UN.

On Wednesday the UN's food relief agency said the government set prices too high and malnutrition was rising.

But an official at Pakistan's food ministry told the BBC farmers would simply switch to more lucrative crops if wheat prices went down.

Devastating floods across Pakistan in 2010 damaged acres of arable land.

Although crop yields in 2011 are projected to be healthy, prices are too high for an impoverished population, the director of the UN's World Food Programme told journalists on the sidelines of humanitarian meetings in Geneva on Wednesday.

"The crop outlook is not bad but the food security situation remains difficult because prices remain so high," Wolfgang Herbinger said.
Smuggling risk

Malnutrition levels in the southern province of Sindh had reached 21% to 23%, according to the WFP.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

It is nearly impossible to stop smuggling across the Afghan border, which is extremely porous”

End Quote Food and Agriculture ministry spokesman

"That is well above African standards. The emergency standard is 15%," Mr Herbinger said.

But lowering prices would do little to help the situation, an official at the food and agriculture ministry, who wished to remain unnamed, said.

He also warned that much of the crop would end up in the hands of smugglers.

"Low farm-gate prices lead to lower acreage of wheat crop as farmers switch to other crops and it works as an incentive for smugglers seeking international prices in the neighbourhood.

"It is nearly impossible to stop smuggling across the Afghan border, which is extremely porous," he said.

So if prices are lowered, the official said, the risk is that they would eventually rise to even higher than the level they are currently set at.

In the 1990s and between 2007 and 2009 there were severe wheat shortages across Pakistan, leading to extremely high prices.

Pakistani officials also say that malnutrition in Sindh province is not a new phenomenon and is unrelated to the food supply.

"Government statistics show that food consumption has not gone down despite the doubling of food prices since 2007-08," Kaisar Bengali, advisor to Sindh's chief minister said.

A lack of public hygiene facilities and safe drinking water were more important factors in child nutrition, he said.

"These are neglected areas, and there has been hardly any development in the public health sector here in decades," Mr Bengali said.
Riaz Haq said…
Flood Emergency Cash Transfer Project, designed to support the Government of Pakistan’s Citizen’s Damage Compensation Program (CDCP) in providing cash transfers to more than 1 million flood-affected households, according to pkeconomist.com:

The project will also strengthen the management of the CDPC through effective grievance redressal mechanisms and establishing control and accountability measures to ensure efficient and transparent delivery of the support.

“The 2010 floods were a disaster of historic proportions that affected over 20 million people and created a massive recovery need,” said Rachid Benmessaoud, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan. “Households faced with income shocks often adopt coping strategies that are not beneficial over time, including reducing assets and consumption, increasing borrowing, and taking children out of school to work. Therefore, cash assistance to flood-affected households is essential to mitigate the adverse effects of income shocks besides addressing the issue of poverty and vulnerability. Importantly, the project will also assist in developing necessary capacities and systems to effectively handle the similar disasters in the future.”

Launched in September 2010, the CDCP provided around 1.4 million families with cash grants of PRs. 20,000 (approximately US$230) to cover their immediate needs. The next phase, supported by this project, will provide an additional payment of PRs. 40,000 (approximately US$460) to around 1.1 million most affected households, thereby reaching between 7.5 and 8.3 million people to rebuild their lives. To meet the total financing requirements for the CDCP, the World Bank has worked closely with other development partners, some of which (USAID and Italy) have already committed funds.

“International evidence suggests that cash grants allow the recipients the flexibility of choosing where to put their resources based on their specific conditions and priorities.” said Iftikhar Malik, Co-Project Team Leader. “Beneficiaries are expected to use these additional grants to not only cover basic consumption but to also recapitalize assets as well as recover their livelihoods.”

The World Bank is well placed to support the Government of Pakistan in extending and strengthening the CDCP due to its substantial international and regional experience in protecting the affected and vulnerable through post-disaster cash transfer programs. In addition to this operation, the Bank has assisted the Government in its flood response through financing the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment and making available US$300 million for fast-disbursing financing of critical flood-related imports and US$20 million for highway reconstruction.

The credit is from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm. US$81 million of the credit carries a 0.75% service charge, 10 years of grace period and a maturity of 35 years. The remaining US$44 million has the same terms plus a fixed interest charge of 3.2%.
Riaz Haq said…
In flood-stricken Pakistan, a good wheat harvest is expected, reports Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):

Islamabad/Rome, 30 Mar 2011 -- A large-scale distribution by FAO of wheat seeds to the victims of last year’s floods in Pakistan is now ripe to yield enough food for half a million poor rural households.

With an average family size of eight, this translates into a harvest large enough to feed four million people for the next six months.

FAO spent $54 million of international donor funding buying and distributing quality wheat seeds as part of its emergency intervention that began last August. . Once the harvest is completed, this donation will have produced a crop worth almost $190 million in wheat flour, the main staple, at current local retail prices. “The investment made by donors has been quadrupled,” said Daniele Donati, Chief, FAO Emergency Operations Service. “Moreover, farmers will be able to save the seeds from this year’s harvest to plant again later this year.”

More than 18 million people in Pakistan were affected by last summer’s severe flooding, which caused extensive damage to housing, infrastructure and crops.

Farming nearly fully-funded

In responding to the immediate and critical challenges of the 2010 floods, FAO led the Agriculture Cluster, comprised over 200 organizations, reaching 1.4 million farming families across Pakistan.

FAO received $92 million of its $107 million appeal, which has enabled it to shore up the smallholder agricultural system in the four Pakistan provinces affected by the flooding. The donors were Australia, Belgium, Canada, CERF, the European Commission, IFAD, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

As well as supporting the “Rabi” wheat planting season, it is estimated that FAO saved the lives of almost a million livestock by supplying temporary shelter and enough de-worming tablets and dry animal feed for almost 290,000 families. Green fodder is now becoming available as the harsh Pakistan winter turns to Spring.

“The livestock interventions really paid off,” Donati said. “It costs ten times more to buy a new animal, which often represent a family’s lifetime savings”.

Canals cleared

FAO is overseeing a thousand cash-for-work schemes by which workers are paid to clear irrigation canals blocked with silt and flood debris.

One severely affected province not to have received much help is Sindh. This was because the fields remained waterlogged until well after the end of the Rabi planting season, and in some cases are still inundated. The UN Agency will shortly distribute quality rice seeds to almost 25 000 families in Sindh for the upcoming planning season, but over 700 000 families will require assistance over the coming months.

Recovery priorities

FAO, in partnership with the Government of Pakistan has identified recovery priorities for the next two years. These are increasing crop, livestock, fishery and agro-forestry production, improving diets and nutrition and boosting agriculture extension services to offer advice to landless and smallholder farmers.

“Pursuit of these core objectives will significantly reduce the vulnerability of the populations in question, improve food production and income generation, and increase affected communities’ resilience to future shocks,” said Donati. FAO expects its recovery programme to cost $94 million, enough to assist 430 000 families in 24 districts.

An Early Recovery Working Group, co-chaired by the Pakistan Government’s National Disaster Management Authority and the United Nations Development Programme, has been set up with eight sectors covered including one on Agriculture and Food Security, co-chaired by FAO, WFP and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
Riaz Haq said…
Pakistan's ministry of finance is projecting 4% growth in fiscal 2011-12, according to The News:

“We are looking at a growth rate of four percent for the next year because of a good services sector and on the hope of better farm output,” said a Finance Ministry official who did not want to be identified.

The figure compares with a 3.7 percent growth forecast by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its Outlook 2011 report released on Wednesday.

The ADB expects persistent energy problems and security issues will continue to check Pakistan’s growth in 2011/12, with surging inflation posing a further major risk.
---
Last year, the worst-ever floods that hit the country inflicted $10 billion in losses, forcing officials to slash growth estimates in between 2.5-3 percent for the current year, down from an expected 4.5 percent.

The services sector, however, is likely to grow by four percent in the current year to June and there are signs that the farm sector is recovering from the flooding.
---
Higher cotton, rice and sugar output is expected in the coming year, analysts said.

“We expect that 2011/12 will be much better than this year ... Our own (growth) forecast is close to 4.5 percent,” said Sayem Ali, an economist at the Standard Chartered Bank.

An official at the Planning Commission, which prepares growth targets, also spoke of likely four percent growth next year, but said that was contingent on continuing support from remittances from Pakistanis working abroad and on exports, which have grown by 20-25 percent during the first eight months of the current financial year.

However, the large-scale manufacturing sector, which dominates the overall industry making up 12.2 percent of Pakistan’s GDP, remains a major concern as it faces chronic energy shortages and high interest rates that discourage private sector borrowing.

The sector grew 1.03 percent up to January, against 2.34 percent during the corresponding period last year.

“Energy shortfalls are lowering real growth by at least two percentage points annually,” the ADB said in its report.

Improved prospects for Pakistan’s economy, however, will largely depend on the implementation of measures to address key problems such as inflation, the budget deficit and the need for transparent revenue policies, according to the ADB.

“Increasing prices are on the warning level, not just for Pakistan, but for the whole region,” said Rune Stroem, ADB’s Pakistan country director.

The ADB forecasts inflation in Pakistan will quicken to 16 percent in 2011, the highest in Asia. Revenue generation is another grey area.

The central bank chief said this week that quick steps were needed to broaden the tax base in Pakistan, which has one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world, currently around 10 percent.

The IMF has not yet released the latest tranche of the $11 billion loan due in May last year because of the government’s inability to implement a reformed general sales tax, seen as a key to expanding the tax base.

The fiscal deficit, meanwhile, is expected in between 5.3 percent and 5.5 percent of the GDP in 2010/11, but could be higher if some external flows, including grants, are not received soon.

Stroem said that 5.5 percent deficit estimates seemed unrealistic and there are signals that these might slip even further.
Riaz Haq said…
Here's blog post from today's Dawn newspaper:

GLORIOUS countryside lies between Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur. Travelling across six districts in Punjab, before a blazing summer sets in, I experienced endless fields of wheat waiting to turn golden, of freshly harvested mustard, acres of ripe sugarcane and sprawling mango orchards.

Far from the drudge and gloom of metropolitan Pakistan, economic privation, traffic snarls, extreme religion and the cricket World Cup agony, this is another Pakistan. Over a quarter of a century after the green revolution ended the rural economy is back in boom, this time on the back of rising prices. The feel-good factor is all around.
------------
Alongside the cash economy, the place is also brimming with ideas, and with an entrepreneurial spirit. A young man I meet at Rahim Yar Khan’s chamber of commerce has an IT degree and owns an ice cream distribution business spawning an elaborate cold chain across three districts. He tells me that sales are surging because rural society is transitioning to modern desserts which are now more affordable than traditional sweets like mithai and khoya.

Meanwhile, he’s toying with the bigger vision of an electronic marketplace for agricultural produce. Live connectivity to grain mandis and markets for fresh produce and milk will empower farmers to obtain prices online and through their cellphones. He wants to materialise this and wants tips. I give him my two cents worth: study similar models, write a concept paper, galvanise partners around it, put in seed money and get the venture to mezzanine level.

For now the agricultural economy is growing more in value than in volume. As it does, it pulls in a rising demand for inputs. Fertiliser and agrochemical companies, some listed on the stock exchange are making record profits. Still, few find time to complain about rising input prices. With a population of 400,000, Rahim Yar Khan sports showrooms displaying cars, motorcycles and generators, fast food outlets and even private healthcare clinics.

Even then, not all the cash would appear to go into consumption. Pakistan now ranks amongst the world’s top 10 markets for tractors. Alongside, and despite constrained credit to agriculture, farmers are investing in agricultural implements, irrigation channels and farm modernisation.
--------------
“Simple”, he explains, “this year the ginners got together with the local utility company, Mepco. We’ve instituted a system whereby instead of intermittent hours of loadshedding we get it in one block of 12 hours. This way we can run the factory on one shift per day”. With that problem behind him he now wanted to move on; that is, to a pasteurised milk business.

As the green revolution tapered off, a poultry revolution began; in the late 1970s. Ever since, Pakistan has been gnawing away
at broiler chicken and there’s no turning back. Today a dairy revolution is sweeping Pakistan. As the world’s fifth largest milk producer, the country can only process three per cent of its milk production. Sitting in his factory office in Khanpur — one could have been in any plush office in a metropolis — we open his wireless notebook and download a pre-feasibility study for a milk pasteurising business from Smeda’s website. We glean through it, and at a Rs160m capital outlay it looks doable for him.
--------
In 2009, an NGO distributed young cattle on micro-credit to 1,000 small farmers and built an apex organisation to collect and market milk from these grass-roots. The Dutch consultant for the NGO informs me that a modern farmers’ cooperative model is now evolving. Such models have long been in vogue in Europe and indeed in several developing countries. Usually the extended supply chain ends at farmer-owned retail outlets — co-ops. Why hasn’t this concept gained traction in Pakistan?
---------
And so Pakistan prepares to harvest another bumper wheat crop in 2011.
Riaz Haq said…
Here's an IRIN story of a family in Muzaffargarh struggling to recover after the floods in 2010:

MUZAFFARGARH, 8 April 2011 (IRIN) - Eight months after floods forced Saleemullah Adeel and his family to abandon their home in Pakistan’s southern Punjab city of Muzaffargarh, the road to recovery has proved rough for this landless farmer.

The wheat he planted on 10 acres (four hectares) leased from a large landowner at an annual fee of US$118 per acre (0.4 hectares) is doing well, and Saleemullah hopes for a good crop because weather conditions so far have been good. Near his house, which is now partially repaired, there are neat rows of vegetables, and a few hens feed in the yard. But he has little else to be happy about.

“I bought wheat seed and fertilizer after selling the jewellery we had purchased for my elder daughter’s wedding, which was scheduled for this month,” Saleemullah told IRIN. “Now it has been postponed [yet] I have used up all my savings and my two sons, who worked on fish farms, have lost their jobs.”

The July-September 2010 floods destroyed hundreds of fish farms in the Muzaffargarh area, according to media reports, leaving many, like Saleemullah’s sons, out of work.

But Saleemullah’s problems do not end here. Since he did not own the land he farmed, he was not awarded compensation by the provincial government, which gave landowners seed and fertilizer. “The landlord we lease from claimed he needed [the seed and fertilizer] for his own lands,” he said.

Cotton crop destroyed

Other people, too, have suffered. “I have earned nothing for months because the cotton crop was destroyed, and factories which crush the cotton seed to extract oil did not employ us this time as they usually do,” said Ahsan Akhtar, 30, whose wife was not hired this year as a cotton-picker.

Across the country, people have continued to live with losses incurred during the floods, even as they attempt to recover, but this is proving tough. “My youngest child, aged six months, has had diarrhoea for nearly a month,” said Sanober Bibi, 25. “The health workers who used to visit early on after the floods no longer come, and the medicine given by the local midwife did him no good at all.” There is no clinic in their village.

On 6 April Neva Khan, country director of the UK Charity Oxfam, pointed fingers at the government, telling reporters that a delay on the part of the government to provide a “reconstruction strategy” had resulted in delays in urgent rebuilding and recovery work. In some cases this had “barely started even eight months after the disaster”, he said.

A government official refuted that claim. "The rehabilitation phase was started some months ago," Ahmed Kamal, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority, told IRIN. A Sindh government official, who preferred anonymity, said a "desperate lack of funds" was holding up recovery in the province, but "progress was slowly being made".
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a Dawn piece on rising rural income disparities from high commodity prices:

..Is the current spike in the commodity prices benefiting everyone living in the villages, particularly in Punjab and Sindh which together contribute more than 90 per cent to the country’s agricultural output and where more than two-thirds of the country’s population lives?

“Whereas a large chunk of this income has ended up with the agriculture elite, there are signs that some of it has trickled down to the small farmers as well,” according to Waheed. Others argue that the transfer of additional cash has widened income disparity in the rural society even if many small farmers have also benefited from the soaring crop prices because the “trickle-down” has been uneven and limited.
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Ashfaque Hasan Khan, dean and principal of the NUST Business School who served as a special finance secretary in Musharraf government, says the income disparity in the rural areas has widened as a result of the rising crop prices.

“Only 40 per cent of the rural population is engaged in the crop sector and a vast majority of them are small landholders. This means only a small portion of population in the rural areas has gained from the increasing crop prices,” he elaborates.

In Punjab, for example, less than half of the rural population is engaged in the crop sector. Some 90 per cent of it falls in the category of small farmers with landholdings up to 12.5 acres.--------

“An overwhelming majority of small farmers buys inputs on credit and, thus, is forced to pay a much higher price than those who pay cash for these inputs,” claims Mughal. “Even if they have cash their cost has gone up manifold, offsetting the gains of
higher crop prices.”

There are people who are of the view that smaller landholding have helped a more equitable distribution of additional incomes among the growers in Punjab compared to the farmers in Sindh where landholdings are very large.

Salman Shah, former finance minister, says the additional incomes generated by higher commodity prices have been distributed more evenly in Punjab compared to Sindh.
-----------
Shah is of the opinion that the landless labour in the villages has also benefitted from the new economic prosperity being experienced in rural areas and their wages have also gone up. But he says only a comprehensive study of the impact of commodity prices on the rural society could give answers to many questions.
--------
Many fear that the growing agricultural commodity prices may rob the farmers of the incentive to boost their productivity. Mughal says the rising prices and decreasing productivity is not good for the economy.

“Our productivity per acre has decreased significantly over the decades whereas India has successfully managed to substantially boost its crop output. The new wave of economic prosperity in the rural areas should not be allowed to take our focus off the need to boost productivity. That will be disastrous for the economy as well as people,” he warns.

While the soaring prices have brought a semblance of prosperity to the rural areas, it has added to woes of the urban population where poverty levels are rising and the quality of life suffering. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased by 55 per cent over the last three years whereas salaries have not risen accordingly, according to Waheed.

“The urban population that relies on manufacturing growth and trading, or earns fixed salaries has generally experienced a deterioration in its standard of living, and is not happy about it. Large scale manufacturing growth has declined by about one per cent over the last three years whereas the wholesale trade has risen by a marginal four per cent,” he says, underlining the impact of rising price inflation on the urban consumers
Riaz Haq said…
Here's an interesting 2004 ADB assessment of Pakistan's rural economy:

....
Despite recent good macroeconomic performance, Pakistan continues to have high levels of poverty. Poverty estimates of 2000-2001, indicate that around one third of the population lives at or below the poverty line, with poverty being concentrated in rural areas. Available international literature indicates a strong and clear-cut relationship between agricultural growth and poverty reduction. The agricultural sector is a major determinant of the overall economic growth and well being in Pakistan, contributing 23 percent of total GDP; employing 42% of the total employed labor force; and accounting for nearly 9 percent of the country's export earnings. Thus, high agricultural growth is essential for significant poverty reduction in Pakistan.

However, in addition to the direct impact of agriculture growth on poverty reduction, there is also a much larger indirect effect through the linkages between agriculture and non-farm growth in rural areas. Non-farm growth is closely linked with agricultural growth since peasant farmers spend a large portion of their incremental income on locally produced non-agricultural goods thus generating employment and incomes in the adjoining areas. The increased demand for non-farm goods leads to a much larger increase in employment, which is a key vehicle for poverty reduction. Available information also points to the increasing importance of non-farm incomes for rural households. The five major sources of income in rural Pakistan are wages/salaries, transfer income, crop income, rental income and livestock income. Livestock is a particularly important source of income for the poor with a majority of poor households, especially the landless and small landowners, dependent on this sector.

In the light of increasingly limited income generating opportunities in the on-farm sector, poor households are increasingly turning to the non-farm sector as a key source of livelihood. In addition, there appears to be a higher incidence of vulnerability to falling into and remaining in poverty, among households which are dependent solely on agriculture. Rural areas that are well connected with the urban areas seem to be more prosperous, in part because the lack of employment opportunities in rural areas results either in labor reallocation or migration. In both cases, human capital plays a positive and significant role and the poorest of the poor neither possess the human capital nor have the resources to migrate. This vulnerable group needs special attention.

Pakistan's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper outlines four pillars for accelerating growth and reducing poverty. Pillar One focuses on accelerating economic growth, pillar Two on improving governance and devolution, Pillar Three on investing in human capital, and Pillar Four on targeting the poor and vulnerable. Pillars One and Four focus on generating employment, especially in the rural areas, small and medium industries and micro-finance. There are also very strong linkages between income poverty and the other two PRSP Pillars. For example, access to justice, successful devolution, increasing the human capital of the poor, and ensuring effective safety nets are also central factors for increasing the incomes of poor people.
---
To increase incomes of poor households and build social capital, the ADB is funding a Micro-Finance Sector Development Program. As part of its objective to efficiently provide financial and social services to the poor, the ADB assisted with the establishment of the Khushali Bank, a public-private enterprise in partnership with NGOs, under this program. The ADB is also engaged in several rural development projects such as the Malakand, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Bahawalpur, and Dera Ghazi Khan Rural Development Projects, to enhance household incomes, particularly for the smallholder and tenant farmers, and the landless.....
Riaz Haq said…
Here are a few excerpts from Wall Street Journal story titled "India's Boom Bypasses Rural Poor":


The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA), as the $9 billion program is known, is riddled with corruption, according to senior government officials. Less than half of the projects begun since 2006—including new roads and irrigation systems—have been completed. Workers say they're frequently not paid in full or forced to pay bribes to get jobs, and aren't learning any new skills that could improve their long-term prospects and break the cycle of poverty.

In Nakrasar, a collection of villages in the dusty western state of Rajasthan, 19 unfinished projects for catching rain and raising the water table are all there is to show for a year's worth of work and $77,000 in program funds. No major roads have been built, no new homes, schools or hospitals or any infrastructure to speak of.

At one site on a recent afternoon, around 200 workers sat idly around a bone-dry pit. "What's the big benefit?" said Gopal Ram Jat, a 40-year-old farmer in a white cotton head scarf. He says he has earned enough money through the program—about $200 in a year—to buy some extra food for his family, but not much else. "No public assets were made of any significance."

Scenes like this stand in stark contrast to India's image of a global capitalist powerhouse with surging growth and a liberalized economy. When it comes to combating rural poverty, the country looks more like a throwback to the India of old: a socialist-inspired state founded on Gandhian ideals of noble peasantry, self-sufficiency and a distaste for free enterprise.

Workers in the rural employment program aren't allowed to use machines, for example, and have to dig instead with pick axes and shovels. The idea is to create as many jobs as possible for unskilled workers. But in practice, say critics, it means no one learns new skills, only basic projects get completed and the poor stay poor—dependent on government checks.
----------
Others said the ban on mechanization limits the scope of projects to gravel roads and pits to capture water. Such programs last for only a couple of years and do little to improve village life. Balveer Singh Meena, a 31-year old farmer in the village of Mohanpura in northern Karauli, ekes out a living growing wheat and chickpeas. He eats a single Indian flat-bread known as roti and vegetables for every meal. By selling what little excess food they produce, Mr. Meena and his three brothers are able to make just over $400 per year, which must stretch to pay for an extended family of eight people.
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But shortly after the program started in February 2006, workers complained that local leaders were docking pay and asking for money in return for job cards. The central government responded in 2008 by sending money directly to workers' bank accounts. But according to workers and auditors, the money takes so long to reach those accounts—up to 45 days—that workers are often forced to accept lesser cash payments from local leaders on the condition that they repay the money at the full amount.

Audits of the program in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh found that about $125 million, or about 5% of the $2.5 billion spent since 2006, has been misappropriated. Some 38,000 local officials were implicated, and almost 10,000 staff lost their jobs.

In one study of eastern Orissa state, only 60% of households said a member had done any of the work reported on their behalf. Earlier this month, the central government gave the green-light for the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's top federal criminal investigation body, to launch a probe into alleged misuse of program funds in Orissa....
Riaz Haq said…
Overview of Livestock, Dairy, Fisheries & Poultry Sectors in Pakistan:

1 Dairy Sector
With an estimated 33 billion litres of annual milk production from 50 million animals, managed by
over 8 million farming households, Pakistan is the 5th largest milk producing country in the world
Livestock sector contributed approximately 53.2 percent of the agriculture value added and 11.4
percent to national GDP during 2009 – 10
The milk economy in terms of value is over 27% of the total Agriculture sector
Additional potential of 3 billion litres of milk, with a growth rate faster than any other sector
Of the total 33 billion litres of milk produced, 71% is rural based and 29% is urban based
Of the total production, around 3% is processed and marketed through formal channels
40% Supply and Demand gap exists in Pakistan.

2 Livestock Sector
Livestock sector contributed approximately 53.2 percent of the agriculture value added and 11.4
percent to national GDP during 2009?10.
Gross value addition of livestock at current factor cost has increased from Rs. 1304.6 billion
(2008?09) to Rs. 1537.5 billion (2009?10) showing an increase of 17.8 percent as compared to the
previous year.
The population growth, increase in per capita income and export revenue is fuelling the demand for
livestock and livestock products.
Pakistan earned USD717 million from leather exports in FY09 and a meagre USD96 million from meat
exports.
Poultry sector is one of the organized and vibrant segments of agriculture industry of Pakistan.
This sector generates employment (direct/indirect) and income for about 1.5 million people.
Poultry meat contributes 23.8 percent of the total meat production in the country
The meat demand for Pakistan Domestic market is growing at a rate of 2.73% for Beef, 2.90 % for
mutton and 6.10 % for poultry.
This domestic demand is growing to meet the population growth, human need for protein and
calcium, migration of population from rural to urban and the fluctuating growth due to per capita rise
in income.
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3 Fisheries Sector

During the period July?March 2009?10 the total marine and inland fish production was estimated
952,735 Million tons out which 667,762 Million tons were marine production and the remaining catch
come from inland waters.
A number of sites have been earmarked on an area of 20,000 acres of land in Districts Thatta &
Badin along the coast.
Immense potential exists to start commercial scale fish/shrimp farming in Sindh.

4 Poultry Sector
Poultry is an important sub – sector of agriculture and has contributed enormously to food production by
playing a vital role in the domestic economy.
Poultry industry can broadly be divided into three
groups, viz. hatchery, poultry farming and feed sectors. This sector generates employment and income
for about 1.5 million people in Pakistan. Its contribution in agriculture growth is 4.81% and in Livestock
growth is 9.84%, whereas, the total poultry meat contributes to 23.8% of the total meat production in
the country.
Pakistan, with a population of 170 Million people, has gone through a sizeable growth in the production
of poultry meat and eggs. Per capita availability went up from 23 in 1991 to 46 eggs in 2009 and poultry
meat availability increased from 1.48kg to 2.88 kg during the same period. In our Country per capita
consumption of meat is only 7 KG and 60-65 eggs annually. Whereas developed world is consuming 41
KG meat and over 300 Eggs per capita per year. According to Industry sources there is capacity of 5,000
Environmental Control Houses in Pakistan and currently only 2,500 houses are working.
The total Poultry population in Pakistan is approximately 610 Million.
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a report on Pakistan trying to collect taxes from middlemen (arti) on their profits:

The government has imposed a 10 per cent advance tax on commission, or brokerage fee, earned by the agents of cultivators or farmers and a withholding tax at a rate of 1.5 per cent on the sale of cotton seed, rice and edible oils.

According to new taxation measures announced by the government on Saturday, the new taxes will not be applicable to growers who sell their produce, a circular of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said.

The circular stated that the withholding tax on sale/purchase of seed cotton will be deducted by withholding agents.

“The withholding agent shall not deduct withholding tax on purchase of agriculture produce which is directly sold by a grower of the produce,” the circular added.

The 1.5 per cent withholding tax is being levied on profits earned by the middlemen in the business of buying produce and selling it to the markets at higher rates.

To ensure that the withholding tax is collected, the FBR has directed that the buying agent will have to make three copies of the certificate and give one to the grower, submit the second copy in office of tax commissioner of Inland Revenue and keep the third copy for own record.._

The FBR has also issued a format for the farmers, describing their sale of sugarcane, wheat, rice or cotton to the buyer, which also explains the details of the agricultural land the produce belongs to and the date of sale.

While the circular also states that “in case sale of seed cotton or other agriculture produce is made by a grower/cultivator through a commission agent, then advance tax is collectible under section 123 of the Ordinance at rate of 10 per cent of the gross commission income of the commission agent”.

However, the farmers have rejected the new initiative of the FBR and the farmers’ associations have come up with plans to organise a demonstration in Multan on April 5.

Agriculturists have been accusing the government of adopting policies that would only hurt the small- and mid-level farmers and these measures are being taken to protect the large land owners who should be paying income tax on agriculture.

Calling the new measures as indirect tax on the agricultural sector, the President of Pakistan Agriculture Forum Ibrahim Mughal talking to Dawn said the government was bent upon destroying all the productive sectors and after imposing 17 per cent General Sales Tax on agriculture inputs including pesticides, fertiliser and tractors through presidential ordinance on March 15, 2011, the new move will have more serious impact on the overall agriculture economy.

Mr Mughal said that new measures would affect the overall agricultural sector and its productivity which would reverse economic cycle for the small and mid-level growers.

“In March government imposed over Rs80 billion taxes on agriculture sector in form of GST and advance taxes,” he said adding that around 80,000 tractors are being purchased by the growers per annum and after the imposition of 17 per cent sales tax, they will have to pay a total of Rs8 billion annually more than the earlier price.
Riaz Haq said…
Pak Suzuki Motors (PSMC) to gain from Punjab govt's yellow cab scheme, according to The News:

KARACHI: Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) stands to gain from the Yellow Cab Scheme announced by the government of Punjab in its budget for 2011/12, analysts said.

The provincial government has announced that a grant of Rs4.50 billion has been allocated for the scheme, which will partly finance 20,000 vehicles.

Contrary to the yellow cab scheme, the Nawaz Sharif government introduced in 1992/93, this scheme relies on locally-made vehicles.

‘Mehran’ and ‘Bolan’, the two most popular makes of Pak Suzuki, have been short-listed for the scheme.

The analysts said the ultimate beneficiary will be the PSMC, which has been suffering from appreciating yen, relaxation in import policy and production constraints since a tsunami-hit Japan.

Gross profit margin of the company has squeezed to mere two percent in 2010, which was around four percent a year back, they added.

Details of the scheme are yet to be unveiled, but it is expected that the vehicles would be 50 percent financed by the government of Punjab, while the buyer would have to pay the rest.

There are concerns of possible lack of transparency in financing.

Besides, there is a lack of clarity about the time period over which the scheme would be spread.

Furqan Punjani, an analyst at the Topline Research, said that there are possibilities that out of 20,000 only 12,000 to 15,000 units will go in the said scheme and the rest might fall victim to corruption.

An analyst at Arif Habib Research said that it is believed that PSMC’s car volumes would spike by nine percent and 16 percent in CY11E and CY12F.

Consequently, the earning pershare (EPS) of the company would improve by 75 percent and 116 percent in CY11E and CY12F, respectively, he said.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=53955&Cat=3&dt=6/23/2011
Riaz Haq said…
Here's an OXFAM report about land for landless peasant women in Pakistan:

Oxfam Media Officer, Caroline Gluck, is currently travelling in Sindh district in Pakistan. She sends us this blog from there:

Mother of five, Sodhi Solangi, can’t stop smiling as she shows me her new eight acre plot of land. Cotton crops are growing and, a little further away, building work is almost finished on a large new house overlooking the fields where her family will soon settle.

Just a few years ago, 42 year old Sodhi, who lives in Ramzan Village, Umerkot district, in Sindh, Pakistan, was landless. She and her husband used to work on others’ lands, earning a share of the crops as payment. Daily life was a struggle.

“We often had problems”, Sodhi recalled. “Sometimes we had money, sometimes not. It was very hard for us. We’d spend all our days working on someone else’s farm and our children would be at home.

“We wore torn clothes. But now things are very different. When you like something, you can go out and buy it. Before, we would have to ask the landlord to give us money if we wanted anything, but now we have money in our hands and we can buy things whenever we want.”

“Now we have our own land and are working on our own land. It feels so good when we work there. When we used to work for others, we would have to drag ourselves there.”

Her family’s luck changed when Sodhi was awarded eight acres of land, under a programme run by Sindh’s provincial government, which in 2008 began redistributing swathes of state-held land to landless women peasants. The landmark scheme was an attempt to lift more people out of poverty in the province, where more than two-thirds of the population work the land, but where bonded labour is still widely practiced and most land is still held by wealthy and political influential elites.

Sohdi and her family grew wheat and cotton on their new land. And they managed to earn enough profit to buy another eight acres.

“We were so happy when we go our land. Now, things are so different”, said Sodhi. “Whenever we want to eat anything, we can just buy it. Before, we used to eat dal and potatoes. Now we can buy all sorts of things – mangos, even chicken.”

“Everyday, we have a lot of food. It’s like a festival of food for us every time!” she said, laughing.

Meat is an unaffordable luxury for most poor farming families – and one telling sign of just how much Sodhi’s life has turned around.

Her neighbours and relatives jokingly call her “lady landowner” and many told me they planned to apply for land during the next phase of the redistribution scheme.

But Sodhi is one of the lucky ones. Her land, though parched and lacking proper irrigation, is still cultivable; and, unlike many women, Sodhi didn’t face legal claims disputing her right to the land from wealthy landowners or others living nearby.
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“The landlord sent officials to threaten the women here saying : ‘We will destroy your homes and take your tractors. ‘ He also threatened to send the police to our home”, said Shareefa Gulfazar, who is in her fifties, and was awarded 4.5 acres of land.

Her daughter, Dadli Kehar, who was awarded 3 acres of land, fears they are being tricked out of what is rightfully theirs. With the help of Oxfam’s partner Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI), both women plan to fight through the courts for what they believe is their right to the land.
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Despite the threats and the likelihood of a lengthy legal battle, Shareefa and Dadli intend to fight for their land. They know that having their own land can empower them as well as help to feed their families and ensure they have a better future.


http://www.oxfamblogs.org/southasia/?p=1088
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a report by Oxfam's Caroline Gluck posted on Reliefweb:

Pakistan did not carry out essential land reforms soon after independence. As a result, critics say, Pakistan's agricultural and rural sectors are characterised by highly feudal relationships which keep many in abject poverty, including bonded labour. It's estimated that more than 60% of farmers in Sindh are landless, while vast tracts of farmland are still owned by small wealthy elites who wield huge political and social influence.

Sindh's land distribution programme is a bold step forward. For the first time in Pakistan as well as South Asia, state land is being specifically distributed to landless women peasants, in an attempt to begin reducing poverty and bringing about much wider social changes in rural areas.

"It's very important for me to get land"

When I visited the packed kutchari, or open hearing, it was bustling with activity. Many women and their families had traveled in vans organised by Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI), a local partner supported by Oxfam, to ensure as many deserving women as possible had the chance to register for land. PDI staff were also on hand to help those unable to read and write to fill out land application forms; and for weeks earlier had carried out awareness campaigns about the land distribution programme, including using local radio broadcasts.

"It's very important for me to get land," said mother of four, Janat, who currently farms on four acres of land belonging to her landlord. Her family only receive a quarter of the crops they cultivate - the landlord takes the rest.

"We want land of our own to pass on to our children; to have our own house and not live with threats or the fear of having to move. A landlord can ask us to leave at any time," she explained.

Another lady, Sakina, who traveled with her six-year-old son, chipped in. "Security is a priority for us. If we own land, we will have a safe house; no corrupt people can snatch our crops from us... There are always threats from influential people who can take the land from us."

----

The second phase of distribution is now solely targeting landless women. It hopes to iron out many of the flaws in the original process, as well as offering women longer-term packages of agricultural support including providing seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and technical help.

Faisal Ahmed Uqaili, co-ordinator of Sindh government's Land Distribution Programme, acknowledges that about 50% of the original land allocated had proved problematic. But he says that lessons have been learnt and around 80% of cases have been settled. Officials were also under strict orders to ensure greater transparency, he says, to stop nepotism and corruption. There had been cases reported of officials trying to sell application papers to the women, or grant land to people favoured by influential political leaders.

"You need to say the glass is half full instead of half-empty," Faisal told me. "When you meet these success stories, women are now making a livelihood for their husbands and families. There is a marked difference. If change is coming in the life of the people for this allotted land and for a fairly large percentage of people, then it's the start of success."

Mother-of-seven Beebul Hassan's face lights up as she holds up a slip of paper with a signature showing that she's been successful in her application. She is now the proud owner of four acres of land.


http://reliefweb.int/node/357648
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a BBC report of how inflation is hurting Indians and Pakistanis:

Inflation is the price that ordinary Asians are paying for high growth rates.

For the less well-off, who spend their money on food and fuel, the story is even worse. The rise in their household expenses at the moment is usually higher than headline inflation rates.

According to the International Monetary Fund, last year consumer prices rose 13.2% in India, 11.7% in Pakistan and 9.2% in Vietnam. Other Asian nations coped better but the average for developing Asia was 6% - compared to a 1.6% average rise in prices in advanced economies.

The speed at which prices are shooting up means that unless people find ways to save and invest effectively, they in fact get much poorer - even if Asia is getting richer.
---
The world is jealous of Asia's sky-high growth rates, but for ordinary people the price of success is corrosive inflation which could eat away their savings.

"From outside it looks good," says Manasi Pawar. "We're staying in a big house, paying so much in rent and our kids are going to great schools."

Manasi, a qualified software worker in hi-tech Hyderabad in India, recently became a full-time mother. Her husband also works in the IT industry.

The couple epitomise the emergence of a well-to-do middle class in Asian countries - except there's one significant snag.

"We were actually losing money," says Manasi.

The couple recently woke up to the fact that inflation rates of nearly 9% meant that their savings were actually disappearing in front of their eyes.

"We were sitting on a bunch of cash but we didn't know where to put it, and it's important that we don't let it lie there in the bank - because a bank doesn't give an interest rate that even matches the inflation rate," she says.
----
The poorest people in society, who spend disproportionately more on food, are hit most savagely of all.

But there is a way to fight back against inflation: to save, and to put some of that money in a part of the economy that rises along with inflation.

For most people, that means investing in shares or equities. "The only way you can make money long-term is through an equity linked product," says Ms Halan.

Money in the bank in India may only earn 3% or 4% - which in fact means you are losing money. But equity linked funds in this exploding economy have risen much faster, sometimes as high as 25%.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13959235
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a Pakistan Today report on motorcycle manufacturing in Pakistan:

Karachi - To effectively cope with domestic market of over 1.5 million units and after successful launch of their products in global markets, the local motorcycle producers are now planning a further investment of $100-150 million in their existing units.
The motorcycle industry analysts have pointed out that despite numerous hiccups faced by the economy in recent years, growth in motorcycle production has been robust at 15 per cent. “A decade back, the total motorcycle production in Pakistan was around 100,000 units, now the largest player alone is rolling out half a million units while total production of two wheelers has crossed 1.5 million. They said that the encouraging aspect in this regard is that industry is on the path to sustained growth. The local demand for motorcycles is likely to exceed 2 million units within a year or two,” they added.
“The global response to our quality motorcycles indicate a sustained and healthy growth in exports as well” they opined, adding that in fact, the industry experts are seeing themselves as the largest exporters in the engineering sector. A sustained growth is only possible due to regular investment and up-gradation of technology in the motorcycle industry. “The growth we see in motorcycle production would not have been possible without investment”, they added.
In this regard, Fahad Iqbal CEO, HKF Engineering, makers of Ravi motorcycles said that the industry now has to fulfill the growing demand in both domestic and global markets and for this, it needs to invest over $100 million in the next couple of years to keep abreast with market needs and demands. He said that all the motorbike producers having production of 50,000 units or above are now planning to expand their capacities to cope up with the market demands.
“There are almost a dozen players that have achieved this production level” he said, adding that even if each of them invests $10-15 million, the total investment would cross $150 million. These units have been regularly making investments to increase their market share but now they have reached a level where they have to invest in high-tech parts to ensure that instead of having 90 per cent local components, Pakistani bikes are produced by 100 per cent local parts, he added.
Market analysts urged that in such an encouraging situation, the government should refrain from taking steps that might jeopardise this investment. He said that an investment of $150 million by local players without any government concession is better than vying for similar investment over a period of 10 years from a foreign company. The current players, from Italy, China and Japan, are also in various stages of developing new models in the 100-150 cc range with the latest technology, he said. However, he added, they were not offered any relief even on imports of the environmentally friendly Euro 2 components, which have already been introduced in local bike production.
“Capacities exist in the country in areas like sheet metal parts and there is a huge investment need in areas such as die casting for parts like crank cases and crank covers, electronic parts such as CDI units, engine parts like ACG, clutch, pistons, shock absorbers (cushions), plastic parts such as emblems” said Arshad Awan CEO General Engineering and added that even capacity enhancement and thus investment will be needed in low-tech parts like head lights, tail lights etc.


http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/08/bike-manufacturers-plan-heavy-investment/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's Business Recorder report on Pakistan's exporters' participation in an Abu Dhabi exhibit:

Pakistan makes foray at SIAL Middle East to explore the Gulf food market and boost exports by attracting local and regional players participating in the region's premier food fair, which opened Tuesday at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

Seven Pakistani firms attending the three-day event for the first time displayed their range of products at the Pakistan pavilion.

They will meet local food importers and regional players to explore the market, which is expected to cross $50 billion by 2020.

"Pakistan has emerged as an important player of food supplies to the UAE and Gulf region particularly in rice, meat, poultry, seafood, fruits, vegetables and spices. We hope SIAL Middle East will facilitate our exhibitors both in product and geographic diversifications," Pakistan Ambassador to UAE Jamil Ahmed Khan told Khaleej Times.

The second edition of SIAL Middle East welcomed 12,000 trade visitors with exhibitor line-up of more than 500 food, beverages, equipment manufacturers, suppliers.

Argentina, China, Italy, Iran, France, Pakistan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Tunisia, UAE, UK and US also set up pavilions to exhibit their products to make inroads in the region striving to ensure food security amid rising inflation across the globe.

According to a new research, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states will spend $53.1 billion by 2020 on food imports to feed growing population.

The region, spent $25.8 billion on food imports last year, depending heavily on imports of agriculture and food products.

Food consumption in GCC is expected to rise at the rate of 4.6 per cent annually between 2011-15 and reach 51.5 million tonnes per year during this period.

Pakistan's exports of food products to GCC region stand at $1 billion and UAE shares around 50 per cent of the total bill.

Appreciating premier event, Pakistan Ambassador said SIAL food fair has become a truly international brand.

"It’s a great pleasure to be part of this food event for first time. We welcome valued visitors to the Pakistan pavilion who will have a chance to meet with our leading food suppliers at this dedicated business platform in the thriving region of the Middle East."

Pakistani exhibitors displayed rice, juices, assorted pickles, edible oil, fresh fruits, vegetables, assorted syrups, wheat flour and flour products among others.

According to Pakistan Embassy officials, Pakistan has the potential to double its food export to the UAE by adding value to its products.

"Our average unit price of food exported items is comparatively less than most of the competing countries, but we need to do value addition by establishing brands in the region," an official said.


http://www.brecorder.com/pakistan/business-a-economy/36142-seven-pakistani-firms-explore-food-market-in-gulf-.html
Riaz Haq said…
Quality seeds essential for agriculture development, reports APP:

Supply of good quality seed is the base of sustainable and developing economy. "For improving the seed quality Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) Scientists are making appreciable efforts in agriculture research sector", Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman, PARC said while speaking in a meeting here on Tuesday.
The meeting on "Review of Variety Release and Seed Production System in Pakistan" was jointly organized by PARC and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The PARC Chairman further elaborated that seed supplied to farmer is an important measure for achieving enhanced agricultural production. "Due to lack of awareness and information about quality seed we are unable to achieve required productivity, and the bad quality seed has the potential to threaten food security for whole country", he added.
Foreign delegate from ICARDA, US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) were present on the occasion. Provincial presentation under the guidance of Secretary Agriculture, Government of Punjab, Arif Nadeem and heads of other agricultural institutes from Sindh, Balochistan, and Kheyber Pakhtoonkhwa graced the occasion.
Dr Iftikhar Ahmed, who chaired the meeting emphasized on improved varieties for quality seed that are basic requirements for enhancing the agriculture productive as well as in livestock sector.
He said that seed certified Cooperation Department also established in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balutistan, Baluchistan as in functioning Punjab province for betterment of farmers and also launched a campaign for awareness of quality seed.
During a roundtable meeting of which 30 members participated from across the country discussed current challenges that are being faced to the seed sector.
The members of the meeting special focused on accelerating the transfer of new improved varieties to farmers. The meeting was a follow-up of a three-week mission sponsored by ICARDA during which seed specialist Dr Mishael Turner had wide-ranging consultations with both public institutions and private companies.
He was of the view that the threat posed by epidemics of rust diseases of wheat had raised awareness about the need to move new improved resistant varieties rapidly from research institutes to farmers through the variety release system.
These concerns enabled ICARDA to secure funding from USAID to compare variety release procedures in different countries.
Discussion among the participants covered many issues affecting plant breeding and the seed industry in Pakistan and provided an open exchange of opinions among the stakeholders. Key themes that emerged from the meeting included the need to strengthen public private partnerships and the ways to improve capacity building for all partners of the seed sector.
There was an agreement among the participants that the new Ministry of National Food Security and Research should take up these issues as soon as possible.


http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Business/14-Dec-2011/Quality-seed-vital-for-agri-development
Riaz Haq said…
Here's Punjab CM pitching his province's potential as the food basket to the world, reported by Daily Times:

Pakistan is as an emerging country of fully traceable products for the world to meet food supply demand of increasing global population.
Chief Minister, Punjab, Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif at a meeting with EU ambassadors said Punjab government has diverted substantial resources to develop science-based, vibrant and internationally linked agriculture sector that could not only meet the food security challenges but also compete in domestic as well as in international markets.
Punjab Government has entered into certification regime to produce fully traceable agricultural and livestock products to reach high-end markets of the developed world and to enhance export upto $2 billion annually, he added.
He said Pakistan has the potential to become 10th largest economy of the world after Germany. He apprised the distinguished envoys Punjab government has allocated Rs 2.024 billion for a mega project to improve supply chain of selected agricultural and livestock products for improving quality and introducing traceability as per international market standards and requirements.
He said participation of Punjab in the forthcoming International Green Week (IGW), Berlin Germany would be an excellent opportunity to showcase traceable agricultural and livestock products from Punjab and to project Pakistan.
He said display of traceable agricultural and livestock products at IGW would open the doors of high-end markets of the world leading towards generation of tremendous business opportunities for Punjab, Pakistan.
He said Punjab government was benefiting from Star Farm and Metro to enhance capacity of our producers, suppliers and traders to boost exports.
Ambassadors from 18 European Union countries including Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, EU ambassador to Pakistan were present in the meeting.
Lars-Gunnar said Punjab has tremendous potential in agriculture and livestock sectors to get its due share in global trade of food products. He lauded Punjab government for adopting techniques and standards required for food safety and quality, and linking its traceable agricultural products to the global markets.
Arif Nadeem, Secretary Agriculture said 15-20 fully traceable fruits, vegetables, rice and meat products would be showcased at IGW for which capacity of about 25 exhibitors has been built for compliance of Global GAP and International Featured Specifications (IFS) by Star Farm.
He told METRO would organise Pakistan week in their chains in Berlin, parallel to the IGW event, therefore, fresh produce to be brought in Germany would not only be displayed and sold at the event but also at the Metro stores/chains in Berlin.
He said a vendor selected for the event has prepared thematic design of Pakistan pavilion, which contains Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) areas for display of products.
The concept, ‘farm to fork’ will be demonstrated through cooked dishes of traceable products as well at the
occasion, he added.
Rizwan Khan, Vice Chairman, Punjab Board of Investment and Trade highlighted the significance of International Green Week scheduled for January 20-29, 2012 at Berlin, Germany and briefed about aesthetics and media coverage of the event, embassy coordination and back end support in terms of product development.
The diplomats of EU Countries and others expressed satisfaction on the level of preparedness of Punjab government for participation in the forthcoming IGW, Germany.


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\12\18\story_18-12-2011_pg5_7
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a story in The Nation on high wheat prices hurting exports:

LAHORE – Pakistan is likely to spoil its surplus wheat owing to its high price as compared to the international market and substandard storage system, losing an opportunity to earn millions of dollars through its export.
Experts feared that fresh imminent increase in the wheat support price will halt export of wheat and its products. At present, 5.5 million tons of wheat was lying in stores and open places with public sector departments while our requirement for next few months was only two million tons. They said 1.4 million tons of wheat was present only in Punjab and added that one of the prime reasons of piling up of this wheat stock was high prices.
Former chairman of the Flour Mills Association, Asim Raza Ahmed, while talking to The Nation, claimed that wheat prices were already high in Pakistan as compared to other countries. Supporting his claim, he said Russia had sold wheat to Egypt and Iraq at the rate of $220 to $250 dollars per ton which in Pak rupees is Rs 22,000 per ton compared to Pakistani wheat price of Rs 23,750 per ton. He said that wheat was playing an important role in agriculture of Pakistan. Pakistan is not only self-reliant in this crop from the last three years but also exporting wheat. Pakistan exported 1.7 million tons of wheat and 1.3 million tons of wheat products this year and was competing on this front with Russia, Turkey, Australia, India and America. Some experts were of the view that the government’s poor measures for utilizing bumper wheat crops may cause it billions of rupees losses again because of substandard ways of stocking of the commodity in packing material, which is not recommended by the experts.
The upcoming wheat harvesting season will be overwhelmingly tremendous as the government increased the wheat support prices to Rs 1,050 per maund for encouraging the production of the commodity. But it will also be harmful for the growers, as they will fail to dispose of their commodity due to high rates.
The country is expected to harvest more than 25 million tons of wheat in the next season as against the national requirement of 21 to 22 million tons, leaving surplus of about 3 to 4 million tons of wheat for export market, which should be exported to earn precious foreign exchange for the country.


http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Business/18-Dec-2011/Surplus-wheat--export-in-jeopardy
Riaz Haq said…
Pakistan's food exports are surging, reports PPI:

ISLAMABAD, (Asia Pulse) - Pakistan's exports of food commodities surged by 22.73 percent during the first five months of the current fiscal year to reach at $1.514 billion, Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) reported.
The overall food exports were recorded at 1.514 billion during July-November (2011-12) as compared to the exports of $1.233 billion during July-November (2010-11), according to FBS figures issued.

The food products that contributed to positive growth included fish and fish preparations, exports of which increased from $106.742 million last year to $125.959 million during the first five months of this year, showing an increase of 15.83 per cent.

Exports of fruits also increased by 13.94 per cent from $77.753 million to $88.595 during the period under reviews, showing positive growth of 13.94 per cent, the data revealed.

Exports of vegetables and tobacco increased by 28.47 percent and 27.62 per cent respectively during the period under review.

During the month of November 2011, the food exports witnessed negative growth of 25.85 per cent and 6.93 per cent when compared to the exports of October 2011 and November 2010 respectively.

The overall food exports during November 2011 were recorded at $223.360 million against the exports of $301.246 million in October 2011 and $239.984 million in November 2010, the data revealed.


http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?nid=152011880
Riaz Haq said…
Pakistan produces 13.67 million tones of fruits and vegetables per annum, according to Online News:

An official told Online on Tuesday out of which about 25 per cent goes waste, between farms to consumers, while only 4 per cent is exported at far 41 per cent lower price compared to world average price.

The horticulture sector contributes about 12 per cent to the national agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and holds great potential for increasing export of quality horticultural produce, and offering multiple employment opportunities throughout the supply chain, he added.

The official said, “However, its growth & profitability is restrained mainly by lack of proper post harvest management and transport infrastructure. Improving post harvest management infrastructure (grading, packing, storage and transport/cold-chain) will help reduce high post harvest losses, increase production surplus along with improving shelf life and quality of fresh produce, which will help to stabilize prices in domestic markets as well as to substantially boost export to highly lucrative and competitive international markets.”

It is pertinent to mention here that Ministry of Commerce had decided to establish a “Cool Chain System” under “National Trade Corridor Improvement Project”. The Cool Chain project is bound act as a backbone for the development of supply chain infrastructure for horticulture produce.

http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=187430
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a market research report on Pakistan's agriculture sector:

Pakistan Agribusiness service provides proprietary medium term price forecasts for key commodities, including corn, wheat, rice, sugar, cocoa, coffee, soy and milk; in addition to newly-researched competitive intelligence on leading agribusiness producers, traders and suppliers; in-depth analysis of latest industry developments; and essential industry context on Pakistan's agribusiness service.

Pakistan's agricultural output has steadily declined in its contribution to GDP in the past decade, down from 24.0% in 2000/01 to 20.9% in 2010/11. That said, the sector still employs the largest number of workers in the population and we expect the industry to remain a government priority as the country deals with issues of food security and the vulnerability to natural disasters. Over the long term, we foresee the dairy, poultry and wheat industries as benefiting the most from increased investment.

However, despite the existing network of irrigation systems across the country, we believe that significant improvements in infrastructure and better supply chains will have to be implemented in order for the country to reap the full benefits of its fertile soil.

Key Trends

- Rice production out to 2015/16: 7.5% to 7.3mn tonnes. We expect the country to increase its share in the basmati rice trade as production expands over our forecast period.
- Wheat consumption out to 2016: 14.2% to 25.3mn tonnes. Consumption growth will be driven by rising incomes and population growth, as well as increased access to good-quality milk.
- Sugar production out to 2015/16: 35.1% to 4.8mn tonnes. Large-scale consumers such as confectioners, candy makers and soft drink manufacturers account for about 60% of the total sugar demand and will be the main drivers of growth.
- 2012 Real GDP Growth: 3.8% (up from 2.4% y-o-y in 2011; forecast to average 3.7% from 2011 to 2016).
- Consumer Price Inflation: 11.2% average in 2012 (down from 13.7% in 2011).
- Central Bank Policy Rate: 12.0% (lower than 14.0% in 2011)
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South Asia rice exporters should benefit the most from the recent rice trade disruptions out of Thailand. So far, traders report that more than 100,000 tonnes of rice for export have been stalled as a result of the country's worst flooding in decades. Some sources estimate that this could rise to more than 300,000 tonnes. Given these developments, the spotlight has now turned to South Asia to meet demand for the grain in the near term.

Despite the recent floods, which destroyed approximately 20-30% of the sugarcane crop in the Sindh region, we forecast 2011/12 sugar output from Pakistan at 4.1mn tonnes, 2.5% up from our previous estimates. This is largely due to an overall 5-8% increase in sugarcane yields, area harvested and favourable monsoon rains during the growing season. Sugar crushing is estimated at 82% and sugar recovery at 8.8%. According to provincial reports, higher sugar prices farmers received last year, coupled with strong demand from the industrial sector, have boosted planting in the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhawah.


http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/b503cb/pakistan_agribusin
Riaz Haq said…
Former British foreign secretary David Miliband joins Pakistan private equity fund as advisor, according to Express Tribune:

In what appears to be a coup for the fledgling Pakistani private equity industry, Indus Basin Holdings has managed to get Britain’s former foreign secretary David Miliband on board as a senior adviser.

“We are delighted to be able to bring on board the expertise of Miliband who knows the region and its challenges well,” said Indus Basin founder and CEO Aamer Sarfraz, according to a press release issued by Miliband’s office. “He shares our conviction that investment in Pakistan’s agricultural sector can have substantial long-term impact on the country’s poorest farming communities.”

“I am delighted to be advising Indus Basin Holding, a company that is investing in Pakistan’s future at a time of such fundamental importance,” said Miliband in a press statement. “I care deeply about Pakistan, the development of its economy and its future in the wider region. IBH is committed to developing an agricultural sector which has huge potential, but currently lacks investment. I look forward to working with IBH in building support and investment in Pakistan’s agricultural capacity and productivity.”

Officials at the company say they had been trying for the past year and a half to secure the contract with Miliband, who served as Britain’s foreign secretary between 2007 and 2010. He also served as Britain’s secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs previously.
-----------
Indus Basin Holdings is only a relatively recent entrant into Pakistan’s nascent private equity and venture capital space but already began to attract a lot of attention for the kinds of big-name investors it was able to attract in its fund, which is focused on capitalising on opportunities presented by raising productivity levels in Pakistani agriculture.

The company’s investors include Tim Draper, the famous American venture capitalist known for being an early investor in Skype and Hotmail, and Baron Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza, a Swiss aristocrat whose family owns the ThyssenKrupp, a German technology conglomerate with over 670 subsidiaries and 200,000 employees worldwide.

Indus Basin’s investments currently include Agroventures, a Faisalabad-based breakfast cereal manufacturer, and Rice Partners, a company that is focused on contract farming and marketing Pakistani rice directly to North American and European retailers.


http://tribune.com.pk/story/324941/high-connections-david-miliband-joins-pakistani-private-equity-firm/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's an Express Tribune report on Psakistan's fruits and vegetables exported to Sri Lanka:

A Pakistan trade delegation, visiting Sri Lanka these days, has proposed setting up a body under the title Horticulture Export Marketing Access with the objective of facilitating export of agricultural produce to Sri Lankan markets.

The proposal was floated by the leader of the six-member delegation, Faqir Nusrat Husain, at a ceremony held in Colombo.

The delegation, sponsored by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, is on a week-long visit aimed at exploring ways and means to enhance bilateral trade in fruits and vegetables, flowers and other agricultural produce.

Team members include prominent agriculturalists from across the country, who have specialised in production and export of various fruits and vegetables including guava, chikoo, mango, citrus, berry, potato, dry fruits, gur, tobacco (cigar) and fresh and dry dates.

Faqir Husain told Sri Lankan agriculturalists that Pakistan’s fruits and vegetables had good quality and were also cheaper, adding Pakistan provided an ideal alternative to Sri Lanka, which imported these items from far-off countries.

Eager to reap maximum benefits from the free trade agreement (FTA) with Sri Lanka, the delegation also planned to explore opportunities in the tea industry. In this regard, it will visit Kandy to interact with the local chamber of commerce and the Tea Research Board. It will also visit tea factories and spice gardens.

The team members plan to hold meetings with Sri Lankan fruit and dry fruit importers as well as other stakeholders to explore possibilities of enhancing bilateral trade.

Sri Lanka, which imported $300 million worth of agriculture produce from Pakistan last year, was the first country to sign an FTA with Pakistan. Since the agreement came into effect in June 2005, bilateral trade has strengthened and Pakistan is the second largest trade partner of Sri Lanka in the South Asian region.


http://tribune.com.pk/story/328188/pakistan-proposes-export-facilitating-body/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's Part 1 of National Geographic story about Pakistan's heartland of Punjab:

The fertile alluvium deposited by the mighty Indus river and its tributaries in Pakistan have given the country’s demographic heartland of Punjab an agrarian edge. Yet, errant canal planning and over-pumping from tube-wells have degraded vast tracts of land. Salinity and water-logging afflicts around 6.3 million hectares of land and an additional 4,000 hectare of land gets affected every year (estimates from University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, November 2011). Climate change and conflicts over hydroelectric impoundment infrastructure have also made the arable lands of the country further vulnerable to flooding, as we saw in the epic floods of 2010 when an estimated 20 million people were displaced.

Amidst all these challenges to the farming economy of the country, there are glimmers of hope that Pakistan’s elite are trying to reconnect with the land in sincere and innovative ways. During my last trip to Lahore – the capital of Punjab province and Pakistan’s second-largest city (after Karachi), I was heartened to see urbanites retreating to farms in the surrounding countryside. Previously such farms were merely ornamental playgrounds of wealthy families but now there is a growing interest in these ranks to reconnect with the earth for societal good.

Zacky Farms, just outside Lahore, is the brainchild of Zafar Khan, a Caltech-educated software engineer who runs one of the most successful information technology companies in Pakistan named Sofizar. What started off as a recreational venture is now a side-business supplying sustainably produced organic milk, vegetables and meat to nearby Lahore suburbs. The farm is modeled on a cyclical model of minimal wastes and multiple product usage. The cows are fed pesticide-free oats, clover and grass and their manure is used to fuela biogas plant which runs the dairy facility. In an era of electricity load-shedding, such an alternative source of energy at a local industrial scale is immensely valuable to replicate as a development path. The residue of the biogas is used to fertigate the fodder fields and vegetable tunnels, which along with green manuring obviates the use of fertilizers. Free-range chickens grace the fields and there is even a fish farm on site. Zafar and his Ukrainian-born wife are committed to sharing their experiences with other farming entrepreneurs in the country.

Further south in a more rural and remote part of Punjab, famed writer and erstwhile lawyer, Daniyal Mueenudin, maintains a mid-size farm which is exemplifying other kinds of innovations. The farm does not boast ecological farming practices, apart from tunnel farming that can help with land conservation and humidity control. However, Daniyal has changed the social landscape of his area through implementing a “living wage” for all his employees. Noting the high level of inequality in Pakistan’s hinterland, the Yale-educated former director of the university’s Lowenstein Human Rights Clinic, is practicing what he preached. He also owns a farm in Wisconsin and could have a comfortable life in the States but his social obligations keep him ensconced in Pakistan for most of the year.....


http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/23/farming-pakistan/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's Part 2 of National Geographic story about Pakistan's heartland of Punjab:

...Raising the wage several-fold for works and farm manager, and also offering bonus incentives for performance, has led to positive competition that can help to erode the feudal levels of income disparity which exist in this part of Pakistan. At the same time, Daniyal is also committed to providing new livelihood paths for the agrarian workers as automation reduces farm employment in some areas. He has has fully funded a school and provided a merit-based scholarship for advanced degrees to students from the nearby village. One of the children from this school (the first in his family to even go to school) is now making his way through medical school in Lahore!

Zafar and Daniyal’s stories of commitment to constructive farming for social and ecological good may appear to be outliers but they are catching on and provide hope to a country which is all too often shadowed by despair. In the suburbs of Islamabad, tax incentives and planning rules to encourage farming by urbanites are leading to a growing culture of reconnecting with the land in residential farms. In rural areas, the disaster caused by the floods of 2010 brought forth numerous aid agencies with new ideas for sustainable farming. The Pakistani diaspora, often known in the West for professions ranging from taxi-driving to engineering, may well find opportunities for reconnecting to their land in far more literal ways. With growing commitment from land-owners it just might be possible to use the existential shock of recent natural disasters that have befallen the country into a proverbial opportunity for positive change.


http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/23/farming-pakistan/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's an APP report on Pak food exports so far this fiscal year:

The exports of fish and fish preparations surged by 14.69 percent during the first eight months of current fiscal year (2011-12) against the corresponding period of last year.



The exports of fish and fish preparations were recorded at $195.284 million during July-February (2011-12) as against the exports of $170.274 million during July-February (2010-11), according to data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).



However, in terms of quantity, the fish exports witnessed nominal increase of 0.34 percent by going up from 74,265 metric tons to 74,518 metric tons.



On month-on-month basis, the seafood exports also witnessed positive growth of 13.88 percent during February 2012 when compared

to the same month of last year.



The fish exports during February 2012 were recorded at $21 million against the exports of $18.441 million during February 2011.



However, as compared to the exports of $21.401 million recorded during January 2012, the exports during February witnessed negative growth of 1.35 percent, the data revealed.



In terms of quantity, the fish exports increased by 5.57 percent in February 2012 when compared to the exports of February 2011, however decreased by 2.62 percent when compared to the exports

of January 2012.



The overall food exports from the country witnessed nominal increase of 0.59 percent during the first eight months by going up from $2.601 billion during July-February (2010-11) to $2.616 billion in July-February (2011-12).



The major food products that witnessed positive growth in exports included.



The food products that witnessed increase in exports during the period under review included rice (other than basmati), exports of which increased by 2.91 percent, fruits (15.02%), leguminous vegetables (1,315%), tobacco (37.85%), oil, seeds, nuts and kernels (59.84%), meat and meat preparation (16.46%) and other food products

(45.80%).



The commodities that witnessed negative growth in exports included basmati rice (17.78%), vegetables (36.69%), wheat (53.22%) and spices (1.49%).



The overall exports from the country during the period under review witnessed negative growth of 0.48 percent by going down from $15.263 billion to $15.189 billion.



Imports into the country, during the period, increased by 16.36 percent by going up from $25.600 billion to $29.788 billion.



Based on the figures, the trade deficit during the first eight months of the current fiscal year was recorded at $14.599 billion, against the deficit of $10.337 billion last year, showing an increase of 41.23 percent.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-42262-Pakistan-seafood-exports-surge-by-15pc-in-8-months
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a Pak Observer report on Pak fishing industry exports:

Karachi—Holland’s Ambassador to Pakistan Mr Gajus Scheltema disclosed that a powerful lobby of international fish exporters was strongly opposing the exports of fish from Pakistan to the European Union countries. Talking to mediamen in Karachi he said that the international fish exporters lobby was actively involved in creating obstacles in the way of Pakistan’s fish exports to EU nations.

When asked to name the lobby, the Dutch Ambassador said that the leading international exporters do not want to see fish exports from Pakistan. He, however, that Netherland was assisting the Balochistan government to develop Pasni Port and Fish Harbour that would help Pakistan to enhance fish exports to European Union countries. He pointed out that a firm, engaged in the exports of fish, had demanded license to export fish from Pasni to EU.

Mr Scheltema pointed out that the government of Japan had provided a grant of Rs800 million for the rehabilitation of Pasni Fish Harbour in Balochistan. Holland is engaged in rehabilitation of the harbour so that it meets the required international standards to export fish to EU and other countries in the world.

He said that the Japanese grant would be utilised for the procurement of a dredger; maintenance and dredging of the harbour; and extension and improvement of the breakwater.

Holland’s Ambassador further stated that his country could invest in agriculture, dairy and livestock in Pakistan. He said that Holland is one of the leading producers and exporters of dairy and livestock products in the world. He said that Holland and Pakistan should explore the agriculture, dairy and livestock sectors for mutual investment. Some Dutch companies are willing to explore avenues of investment in these areas in Pakistan and the companies could export agriculture, dairy and livestock products to European Union.

He said that Holland was keen to enhance trade with Pakistan and also supporting Pakistani business people who seek to export to the Netherlands. Scheltema said that their ‘Centre for Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries’ waseducating Pakistani exporters for improvement of their products to export level quality.

He said that Pakistan has a huge potential in agriculture and food processing sector and Holland is planning to invest in these sectors. He also pointed some trade hurdles in importing of cows and cattle from Netherlands to Pakistan.

He further said that Holland was willing to help government of Pakistan in promoting the wind energy in the country. He said that he had recently met the Federal Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar and apprised him of the Dutch companies interest in developing wind energy projects in Pakistan.

Mr Scheltema said that Holland had strongly supported Pakistan in getting the GPS+ facility from the European Union that would help this country to enhance its textile exports share to EU markets. He said Holland was enjoying very cordial relationship with Pakistan and he was making efforts to strengthen the bilateral ties between the two countries. Holland plans to earmark 30 million euros for clean drinking projects in urban cities and some other water-related projects in Pakistan, he said. He said Holland had already worked in various water sector projects and keen to invest in water management, flood control, clean drinking water, waste water treatment and de-silting projects.


http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=147970
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a BR report on State Bank of Pakistan's ag loans target for the year:

The State Bank of Pakistan has set Rs 285 billion target for disbursement of agriculture loan among small farmers for current fiscal year.

Director Development Finance of SBP Karachi, Dr Muhammad Saleem said this while addressing "Agricultural & Industrial Awareness Convention-2012" here on Tuesday.

Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Higher Education Minister Qazi Muhammad Asad Khan participated as chief guest in the convention organised by the State Bank, Rawalpindi in collaboration with commercial banks and insurance companies.

More than 120 stalls of handicrafts, clothing agriculture equipment, handmade beautiful jewellers, banking products and food, etc, were set up by women from various organisations and banks to promote rural culture and potential of trade in these areas.

Horse dancing and culture displays made this event more beautiful.

More than 1500 people including students, farmers and women participated in the convention.

Chief Manager State Bank Akhtar Raza, Group Head of United Bank Ltd (UBL) Jameel Ahmed, Vice Chancellor Hazara University Haripur, Professor Dr Sahawat and others were also present on the occasion.

Dr Muhammad Saleem said the SBP had set Rs 270 billion agriculture loans target for small farmers in the previous financial year while actually Rs 260 billion loan was distributed among farmers.

He said that agri loan is being given to farmers through one-window operation.

He said farmers could give better output if banks provide them loan in time on easy instalments.

"Agriculture is backbones of our economy and its share in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 21 percent.

Livelihood of 47 percent people is directly or indirectly is linked with agriculture sector.

The SBP is playing pivotal role in progress of agriculture sector by providing loans especially to small farmers," he said.

Dr Muhammad Saleem said the SBP formulates policy in consultation with all the stakeholders including farmers.

The SBP changes its policy with passage of time by keeping the necessities of farmers in view.

Addressing the convention, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Higher Education Minister Qazi Muhammad Asad Khan said land of Haripur is fertile and the farmers of this area can give maximum production if they were given some financial support for seed, fertiliser and tractor and other inputs necessary for increasing production.

He urged the SBP to set up its branch in Haripur for promotion of small industries and agriculture sector.

About the Haripur University, He said Haripur has also become a part of the community of 120 universities.

"The government should increase budget for education to 4% of GDP.

The quality of education can only be improved by increasing the budget for this sector.

Group head of UBL, Jameel Ahmed said the State Bank has good legal framework and governance in the region.

The employees of the Bank are servants of people.

"It is your money and used to benefit you," he added.

Vice Chancellor Hazara University Haripur, Professor Dr Sahawat said knowledge-based economy and use of latest technology is of vital importance for progress of agriculture sector.


http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1175388/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a Reuters' report on rice exports from India & Pakistan stabilizing prices:

A rebound in rice supply from India and Pakistan this year will calm fears over food inflation faced by poor nations as cheaper grain from the South Asian neighbours corners a third of the global market.

South Asia’s ample grain stocks will help it undercut key traditional suppliers, as a populist scheme in Thailand prices its grain out of competition and high export floor prices in Vietnam deter some buyers.

India is likely to emerge as the world’s second largest rice exporter in 2012, selling around 7 million tonnes, while Pakistan’s shipments are expected to bounce back to about 4 million tonnes amid the high prices of rival Thailand.

“Indian rice supplies will act as a price stabilisation factor against high global food inflation,” said Tajinder Narang, advisor at a New Delhi-based trading company Emmsons International.

Global food prices rose in March for a third straight month with more hikes to come, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said last week, with higher prices of oilseeds and grains contributing to the rise.

The FAO index, which measures monthly price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 215.9 points in March, up from 215.4 points in February.

Although the index level is below its Feb. 2011 peak of 237.9, it still exceeds the level during the 2007-08 food price crises that triggered global alarm.

After benchmark Thai white rice prices climbed to a record above $1,050 a tonne in May 2008, several nations, including India, put a ban on exports.

That left buyers scrambling for supplies, unleashing concerns over food inflation and the threat of unrest in poor nations in Africa and Asia. But high stock levels in India and Pakistan could help avert a replay this year.
---------
India’s exports this year are expected to jump 50 per cent from last year’s shipments of 4.6 million tonnes, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture. India had exported 2.2 million tonnes in 2010.

Neighbouring Pakistan, which is expected to ship 3.8 million to 4.0 million tonnes in 2012, or an increase of at least 19 percent from 3.2 million last year, is cracking new markets with the sale of 200,000 tonnes to China and unconfirmed exports to the Philippines through unofficial channels.

“When we got a setback from Iran, our exporters looked elsewhere and that has led to diversification,” said Javed Agha, chairman of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan, referring to the impact of tightening Western sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme.

In Thailand, prices have spiked due to a government intervention scheme due to run until the end of June, that is paying farmers 15,000 baht for a tonne of paddy, lifting Thai rice export prices to $500-$560 per tonne....


http://dawn.com/2012/04/11/india-pakistan-rice-supplies-to-ease-agflation-fears-wa/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a News report on rising sales of cars, motorcycles and tractors in Pakistan:

Sales of automobiles in the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year increased 15 percent to 128,576 units, compared to 111,852 units same period last year, according to the data released by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA).



According to the data, in the third quarter (Jan.-March) of this year, automobile sales increased 7 percent to 46,632 units from 43,753 units in the correspondent quarter last year. When compared with the second quarter of this year, sales in the third quarter showed an impressive growth of 22 percent.



Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) continued to depict strong sales showing a growth of 32 percent in the July-March period to 81,360 units compared with 61,693 units in the same period last year. Analysts attribute strong growth to the yellow cab scheme announced by the Punjab government. In March 2012 alone, PSMC sales stood at 11,198 units, up 16 percent from same month last year and 12 percent from February 2012.



On the other hand, Indus Motor Company sales growth remained subdued during the period under review. The company sold a total of 38,858 units compared to 37,259 units in the same period last year, up by 4 percent. In the third quarter, the company sold 14,792 units against 14,851 units in the same period last year.



Samina Kanji, an analyst at BMA Research, a 15 percent year-on-year growth in auto sales is primarily due to the yellow cab scheme of the Punjab government. On the other hand, motorcycles and three wheelers sales increased on month-on-month basis and sales in March stood at 70,671 units as compared to 65,011 an increase of 5,660 units, the data showed. Total sales of farm tractors decline to 6,229 units as compared to previous month sales of 8,906 units. Sales of trucks and buses sales in March stood at 379 units as compared to 304 units in February 2012.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-102452-Auto-sales-show-15pc-growth-in-nine-months
Riaz Haq said…
Telenor to offer agri info to farers via its wireless telephone network, reports newstribe:

Telenor Pakistan, in partnership with the Government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, will provide agriculture and livestock information to farmers in the province.

In addition, farmers will be offered the Easypaisa platform to trade in agricultural commodities. Information will be provided via push SMS, voice recordings and small community gatherings.

The aim is to benefit farmers — especially small farmers — by providing them relevant and timely information, and the ability to carry out related mobile transactions on their handsets. All information will be provided by the Government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa while Telenor Pakistan will act as the distribution channel of the information. A pilot project will initially be run in Mardan district.

To mark the occasion an MoU signing ceremony was arranged at a local hotel. Arbab Muhammad Ayub Jan, Minister for Agriculture, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the chief guest. The MoU was signed by Roar Bjaerum, Vice President Financial Services, Telenor Pakistan and Arbab Muhammad Ayub Jan, Minister for Agriculture, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Roar Bjaerum, in his comments, highlighted the benefits the project will bring to the farmers of the province. “We will provide farmers the information they need to grow better crops and to raise hardy livestock. By doing so, we want to help them make more informed decisions when it comes to agriculture and livestock planning and trading. This way we hope to contribute toward alleviating poverty and empowering farmers economically. We will also offer mobile branchless banking solutions to enable farmers to carry out transactions right on their mobile phones through Easypaisa.”

Ayub Jan in his remarks spoke about the partnership between Telenor Pakistan and the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Agriculture, Livestock and Cooperative Department (ALCD). He said: “The Department has the mandate of promoting the interests of agriculture and livestock farmers in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It has undertaken various initiatives to modernize the sector, and to augment the dissemination of relevant information to farmers to help increase production. Our partnership with Telenor Pakistan is another step in this direction. We are ready to offer all the support it needs to achieve its goals for this project.”

Small farmers, living in far-flung areas, are usually isolated from market information which may help them in dealing with commodity whole sellers (‘beopari’ and ‘arthis). They also do not have immediate access to information about best practices in agriculture and livestock rearing.

Telenor Pakistan’s project will help farmers in getting the information they need to increase yield through access to best quality commodities, latest agri trends, information on judicious use of pesticides and fertilizers, best breed of livestock, new methods of disease control, and quality feed and fodder.


http://www.thenewstribe.com/2012/04/18/telenor-to-partner-with-kp-to-provide-agri-information-to-farmers/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a Dawn report on Pakistan's plan to export surplus sugar:

The government intends to export 400,000 tons of surplus sugar and believes that the performance of the agricultural sector is improving despite natural calamities.

“The good news about surplus sugar was given to President Asif Ali Zardari during a meeting at the presidency by a delegation of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association led by its chairman Javed A. Kayani,” president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said on Thursday.

The PSMA chief said sugar production stood at about 4.7 million tons. After meeting the domestic requirement of 4.2 million tons, about 400,000 tons of sugar is available for export. “Export will enable mill owners to make payments to growers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh,” he said.

Sources in the agriculture sector said the country was exporting wheat and rice and sugar would be the third major commodity to be exported. They said the Punjab government was already exporting wheat and the centre was sending the surplus crop to Iran.

President Zardari expressed satisfaction over the sugar production and said: “It is a matter of great satisfaction that despite unprecedented natural calamities the country is not only in a position to meet its requirements but is also poised to export sugar.”

He said the government was committed to working in consultation with the sugar industry to solve its problems. “Only through the pro-active involvement of the business community and industrialists, the continuity of policies could be
ensured,” the president was quoted as saying.

He advised the government to hold a meeting with the PSMA so that its proposal to export sugar could be sent to the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet for consideration.


http://dawn.com/2012/05/04/plan-to-export-400000-tons-of-sugar/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's Daily times report on cotton & textile industry in Pakistan:

All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), with over 50 percent ($14.8 billion) contribution to the total national exports ($25 billion) and 78 percent share in the textile exports of the country, is the largest trade union of Pakistan as well as contributor to the national economy of the country.

Due to effective policies and leadership of APTMA, this year cotton production increased to 15 million bales despite two million bales lost due to floodwaters, as compared to the last year’s 11.7 million bales, thus making Pakistan self-sufficient in cotton sector for the first time in 10 years.

To rid the country of energy crisis, the association is actively engaged with various stakeholders, including the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL), Petroleum and Gas Ministry and standing committees of the National Assembly. Out of 300 days, gas remained closed for 156 days causing loss of $5 billion cotton to production capacity of the country. Advocating the case effectively with the government, the association ensured five days a week gas supply to the industry, besides getting electricity load shedding exemption.

The association’s proposal of levying gas surcharge for gas exploration and laying of new pipelines was accepted. The APTMA leadership and members are also advocating for the Vision 2020 to resolve the gas crisis and sustainable growth of the energy sector, while clarifying how much energy is going to be produced from hydel, coal and other sources besides gas exploration. The association believes that only a futuristic vision can ensure affordable energy for the industry as well as domestic sector of the country.

APTMA group leader Gohar Ejaz said their strong advocacy for the free market mechanism during 2010-11 helped transfer Rs 400 million to Pakistani cotton farmers, equal to their income of eight years, and in the wake of price increase in the international market, remained the biggest contribution of APTMA for the welfare of the stakeholders. He said farmers got prosperity, which resulted in value addition to the crop and an increase of $5 billion export. While in 2011-12, resolving the energy crisis for the Punjab industry remained one of the biggest contributions of APTMA, he said.
----------
Research and development is the key to survival and growth of any industry. Realising this aspect, APTMA has made it a law to collect Rs 20 per cotton bale from the mills to spend this amount on research through Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC), a semi-autonomous body, with the federal minister for textile industry as its president. Last year, APTMA contributed Rs 300 million, as collected against the production of 15 million cotton bales in the country.

APTMA is also fulfilling its corporate social responsibility towards promotion of textile education in Pakistan. The association established textile colleges in Faisalabad, Karachi and other cities, which were later handed over to the government.

Established since 1957, APTMA is the premier textile industry association having 350 member mills and offices in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar. Although textile sector has a total 14 associations of various stakeholders, APTMA is the only body, which is taking up the case of whole sector to provincial, national and international level for the growth of the sector – from farmer to exporters.

Textile industry contributes 8.5 percent of the GDP, while APTMA is 50 percent of 8.5 percent textile contribution towards GDP. APTMA provides direct employment to one million workforce as well as three million indirect jobs.

Pakistan is the fourth largest cotton producer in the world as 98 percent of 15 million cotton bales produced in Pakistan are consumed by APTMA members.


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\05\07\story_7-5-2012_pg7_5
Riaz Haq said…
Here's an APP report on Pakistan's dairy industry:

Pakistan can easily triple its milk production by employing simple methods while latest measures can further milk output by 900 per cent.

Pakistan has impressive dairy industry which can be exploited to its real potential, said Economic Councilor Embassy of Netherlands, Ian Van Ranselaar here on Thursday.

He said a developed environment can help revolutionize Pakistan's dairy industry.

"A Dutch cow produces nine times more milk a Pakistani cow or buffalo can produce", he said and added that some measures are needed to bring per cow production of both friendly countries at par.

The Dutch diplomat was talking to Vice President Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Mirza Abdul Rehman, Chairman Coordination Atif Akram Sheikh and Chairman Media Malik Sohail.

Ian Ranselaar further said that 16 Pakistani major dairy stakeholders are due to leave for Netherlands to know the latest trends and techniques.

He said currently balance of trade is in favour of Pakistan and they are working on various projects to boost Pakistan economy.

The diplomat said various Pakistani products including rice, textiles, surgical goods, sports hardware, leather products and fruits are of superior quality but local entrepreneurs lag behind in branding which has been identified as a major obstacle.

"Security situation in Pakistan is not as bad as perceived in many countries which is shying away investors. Pakistan should improve its perception", the diplomat remarked.

The Dutch diplomats were all praise for the tireless efforts of Pakistan Commercial Councillor in Hague.

On the occasion, Mirza Abdul Rehman said with 180 million population, Pakistan has great potential for investment, vast space for business activities and there is no issue of law and order.

Atif Akram Sheikh said both the countries have good political ties which should supplement our trade relations.

Pakistan has three times the animals that Germany has, but yields are one-fifth of Germany's and one-third of New Zealand, representing a significant loss, he added.

Business community is satisfied with the efforts of the Ambassador Hugo Gajus Scheltema, said Sheikh, adding that issuance of visa should be made easier.

Malik Sohail said being the fourth largest producer of milk in the world, Pakistan produces 35 billion liters of milk from around five million animals which is worth Rs.177 billion.

"Our dairy sector is growing by five per cent per annum while demand is increasing by fifteen per cent which calls for urgent measures to address issues effecting production", he underlined.

Pakistan is processing only two per cent of milk production which if increased will help boost living standard of rural population and economy.


http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/1-front-top-news/56904-pakistan-has-potential-to-enhance-milk-production-by-900pc-.html
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a special CNN report on a Pakistani village by Wajahat Ali:

This is a story affecting millions of Pakistanis — and it does not involve suicide bombings, honor killings, extremism or President Zardari's mustache.

"What would you like to be when you grow up?" I asked Sakafat, a boisterous 12-year-old girl, while visiting a remote Pakistani village in the Sindh province.

"A scientist!" she immediately replied. "Why can't we be scientists? Why not us?"

The confident Sakafat lives in Abdul Qadir Lashari village, which is home to 500 people in Mirpur Sakro. It is in one of the most impoverished regions of Pakistan.

There was a characteristic resilience and optimism in this particular village. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows anything about Pakistan's often dysfunctional, surreal yet endearing daily existence.

The 500 villagers live in 48 small huts, except for the one "wealthy" family who recently built a home made of concrete. The village chief, Abdul Qadir Lashari, proudly showed off his village's brand-new community toilets, paved roads, and water pump that brings fresh water to the village.

These simple, critical amenities, taken for granted by most of us in the West, resulted from the direct assistance of the Rural Support Programmes Network, Pakistan's largest nongovernmental organization. RSPN has worked with thousands of similar Pakistani villages to help them achieve economic self-sufficiency.

I visited the Sindh village with RSPN to witness the results of using community organizing to alleviate poverty. The staff told me its goal was to teach villagers to "fish for themselves."

Every household in the Abdul Qadir Lashari village was able to reach a profit by the end of 2011 as a result of professional skills training, financial management, community leadership workshops and microloans.

Specifically, a middle-aged, illiterate woman proudly told me how she learned sewing and financial management and was thus able to increase her household revenue, manage her bills, and use a small profit to purchase an extra cow for the family. She was excited to introduce me to her cow, but sadly due to lack of time I was unable to make the bovine acquaintance.
--------
Asked what single thing she felt was most important most for her village, she replied education. Upon asking another elderly lady what she wishes for Pakistan, she repeated one word three times: "sukoon," which means peace.

When it was time to depart, the people of the village presented me with a beautiful handmade Sindhi shawl, an example of the craftwork the villagers are now able to sell for profit.

As I left the village with the dark red, traditional Sindhi shawl adorned around my neck, my thoughts returned to the 12-year-old girl, Sakafat, who passionately asked why she couldn't become a scientist.

I looked in her eyes and could only respond with the following: "You're right. You can be anything you want to be. And I have every confidence you will, inshallah ("God willing"), reach your manzil ("desired destination").

By focusing on education and local empowerment to lift the next generation out of poverty, Sakafat's dream could indeed one day become a reality for all of Pakistan.


http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/13/world/asia/pakistan-empowerment/index.html
Riaz Haq said…
Here's an ET story on Engro supply chain in Pakistan:

Have you ever wondered where the milk in packaged dairy products comes from? In case you assumed that big food companies maintained their own dairy farms that generated thousands of litres of milk daily and remained insulated from fluctuations in open market rates, you are wide of the mark.

In fact, only 5% of about 1.2 million litres of milk that Engro Foods collects every day for its dairy segment during the flush season – from January to April each year when fodder is available in abundance and milk production is high – comes from its own corporate farm located in Sukkur.

The rest of the milk supplies during the flush season and the summer, when milk production drops by roughly 50%, comes from about 15,000 small farmers scattered between Sanghar and Jhang districts, an area of 135,000 square kilometres.

Streamlined under Engro Milk Automation Network (EMAN), Engro Foods maintains a sales force of 1,500 people across 1,200 villages in Sindh and Punjab. They collect milk, mostly in small quantities, from farmers between 6:00am and 9:30am every day, which is then transported for further processing.

But why would a villager with just a few cattle sell the excess quantity of milk to Engro Foods instead of the traditional milk contractors known as dodhis?

According to Aamir Khawas, who works as head of milk procurement and agri services at Engro Foods, doing business with a large food company offers small farmers a number of benefits. “Animals are susceptible to diseases. Our network of veterinarians ensures sick animals receive immediate treatment. That’s a benefit no traditional milk contractor can offer,” he said.

Moreover, the moment a farmer sells milk to an Engro representative, in whatever small quantity, the transaction is recorded electronically in a centralised database by swiping the EMAN card that each of the 15,000 suppliers carries.

The availability of real-time data ensures that money is transferred to the farmer the day the transaction takes place. This is in contrast to the past practice of issuing receipts on paper that took at least a week before a transaction was recorded and payment processed.

In addition, Engro’s advisory service helps farmers increase milk production. “There’re two ways for a farmer to increase his revenue. If he gets Rs41 instead of Rs40 per litre, his revenue increases by Re1. But if the milk output increases by one litre, his revenue increases by Rs40. We help him do the latter,” Khawas said.

So how does Engro ensure that the milk is pure? “It’s very easy. We pay farmers not on the litres of milk they bring to us. Rather, the basis of payment is total solid contents of the milk,” he said, explaining that milk consists of three things – water, fat and solid non-fat (SNF). Total solid contents are the sum of fat and SNF.

“It’s hard to adulterate when the quantity is low. So no matter how much water you add, the solid contents can easily be determined by running a few tests,” he said.

A total of 13 tests are carried out when a farmer hands over milk to an Engro representative. It is picked up from there by an Engro van that carries out another 20 tests on the collected milk. It then reaches the regional office where 30 more tests are done to check its quality. Eventually, milk is taken to the Engro plant where the final 40 tests take place before it is processed, packaged and dispatched to the retail market.

With the demand of milk increasing by 15% annually and supply rising by just 2% a year in Pakistan, the dairy sector looks like a heaven for investment. The Sukkur farm of Engro Foods has already grown 10 times since its inception with about 3,000 cows. “Yet we’re looking for a major expansion in the near future.”


http://tribune.com.pk/story/378282/the-benefits-of-business-with-a-large-food-company/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a News report on US Aid program helping livestock farmers:

Nina Fite, consul general of the United States in Lahore recognised recent graduates of a US Agency for International Development (USAID) supported livestock export training programme at a certificate ceremony, a statement said on Friday.



The programme trained the participants in GlobalGAP certification, a standard for dairy and meat exportation required by several European and international markets. By implementing these standards, Pakistani meat and dairy producers will be able to export to wider markets, growing their businesses and boosting Pakistan’s economy, it said.



“The United States is committed to promoting the economic development of Pakistan. One important element of this commitment is our support to local farmers with programmes to build their business capacity and generate higher incomes – higher incomes that will improve their lives and the lives of their families,” said Fite. “Programmes, such as this USAID-funded training, will have a direct and positive impact on the lives of Pakistanis through the promotion of livestock entrepreneurship,” she said.



Global Good Agricultural Practices (GlobalGAP) is an international private body that sets voluntary international standards for the certification of agricultural production processes.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-109037-US-helps-Pakistan-increase-meat-dairy-exports
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a News report on US Aid program helping livestock farmers:

Nina Fite, consul general of the United States in Lahore recognised recent graduates of a US Agency for International Development (USAID) supported livestock export training programme at a certificate ceremony, a statement said on Friday.



The programme trained the participants in GlobalGAP certification, a standard for dairy and meat exportation required by several European and international markets. By implementing these standards, Pakistani meat and dairy producers will be able to export to wider markets, growing their businesses and boosting Pakistan’s economy, it said.



“The United States is committed to promoting the economic development of Pakistan. One important element of this commitment is our support to local farmers with programmes to build their business capacity and generate higher incomes – higher incomes that will improve their lives and the lives of their families,” said Fite. “Programmes, such as this USAID-funded training, will have a direct and positive impact on the lives of Pakistanis through the promotion of livestock entrepreneurship,” she said.



Global Good Agricultural Practices (GlobalGAP) is an international private body that sets voluntary international standards for the certification of agricultural production processes.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-109037-US-helps-Pakistan-increase-meat-dairy-exports
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a Daily Times story on Pak mango exports:

Mango farmers across Pakistan continue their partnership with USAID to maximise yields, improve product quality, introduce better packaging and create market linkages.

Seven mango farms from Sindh are already scheduled to send commercial shipments to high-end markets across the globe in June of this year.

All these advancements are helping Pakistani mango growers tap into new export markets with each passing season. As the mango season for 2012 begins, this partnership continues to bear fruit. Ghulam Sarwar Abro said a private farm in Kotri Sindh has been a partner with USAID’s Mango Programme.

“We are confident with USAID’s support, all of the ground work has been done. We have the required standards, infrastructure and linkages to tap the international markets on a competitive footing.” More farms will participate in commercial shipments as soon as harvesting begins in Punjab. USAID has signed Infrastructure Upgrade Agreements (IUAs) with 15 mango farmers across Pakistan on a cost-sharing basis to build pack houses.

USAID has also provided assistance to 15 farmers in achieving GlobalGAP certification under a similar cost-share agreement and has planned to increase this number by the end of this season by adding another 12 certified farms.

The USAID Mango Programme is currently in its third year and this year the programme is specifically concentrating on enhancing the market linkages for Pakistan’s mango sector.

He said this project is designed to help the Pakistani economy achieve its export potential. The project has three main areas of interest including an improved Pakistan trade environment through improved regulation, policies, systems and capacity, facilitation of trade at Pakistani borders and establishment of sustainable and competitive Special Economic Zones, including Reconstruction Opportunity Zones.

The project emphasises capacity-building activities that facilitate increased exports from industry, services and agriculture enterprises.


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\05\25\story_25-5-2012_pg5_9
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a Daily Times story on hot water treatment of Pak mangoes for export:

Pakistan’s largest hot water treatment plant for removal of various diseases in mango was inaugurated on Saturday. It has been established under the public-private partnership according to the standard of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Quarantine Standards by the name of Pakistani Horti Fresh Processing (Pvt) Ltd.

The project which was completed in record period of 20 months with its inception has helped to open three new markets for mangoes including Mauritius, Lebanon and South Korea while the Australia is expected to be approved soon which would greatly help boosting Pakistan’s mango exports during the coming ongoing season.

Pakistani mangoes have nine diseases in common, which was unacceptable in the international market but with the start of the operational activities of the new plant, importers have expressed their keenness to place large-scale order for the most desired fruit of the summer season.

It may be recalled here that majority of countries have placed strict conditions regarding import of fruits from across-the-globe and in case of mango, they have requirement of their hot water treatment on 48 degree centigrade for 65 minutes, which makes the fruit acceptable for import purpose.

Currently, Pakistan’s total average mango export stands at 150,000 tonnes which is hardly 8.0 percent of the total annual production of 1.6 million tonnes, which was usually attributed by the exporters on account of limited market access to Pakistani exporters.

Durrani Associates has established the project in collaboration with Ministry of Commerce. Its chief executive highlighting salient features of the project, said that the plant installed has the capacity to process 15 tonnes of the fruit per hour pn 48 C for 60 to 65 minutes.

Similarly for the first time, Ethylene Chamber facility was also used which give colour to mango by food graded Ethylene having no harmful impact on human health as compared to carbide which is widely used in the country for ripening fruit and is spelling harmful diseases for fruit consumers.

He claimed that the biggest breakthrough created by the Pakistan Horti Fresh processing is that now mangoes can be shipped by sea for destinations as far as UK and Canada with shelf life of 35 days.

As compared to by air freight of mangoes to UK which costs Rs 137 per kilogramme (kg) charged by Emirates Airline, the new technology would cost a mere Rs 12 per kg, which would herald new life in exports of fruits to different countries across the globe.


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\06\10\story_10-6-2012_pg5_14
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a BR report on Pakistani mangoes:

Pakistan produces over 150 varieties of mango and among these Chaunsa and Sindhri have great potential for finding buyers in the international markets.

Talking to APP on Monday Secretary Agriculture Punjab Muhammad Mushtaq Ahmed said Punjab holds 67 percent of the total area and produces 80 percent of country's mango.

He said total production of mangoes in Punjab during 2011-12 was 1.304 tons and Pakistan is of high quality with good aroma, excellent appearance, special taste and flavor along with sufficient quantity of fiber content thus enjoying a prominent position in the international market.

To a question, he said Pakistan produces over 1.75 million tons of mangoes out of which 127 tons are exported, currently only 5 percent of the total mango produce is processed in to value added items like pulp for use in drinks and ice cream, canned mangoes and dried mangoes.

He said Pakistan exported mangoes worth $ 29 million to the Middle East and EU in 2009 and Malaysia, China and Hong Kong are other valuable trading partners.


http://www.brecorder.com/pakistan/business-a-economy/68148-pakistan-produces-over-150-varieties-of-mango-.html
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a report on Pakistani banks extending credit to agriculture sector:

Five large banks collectively disbursed agri. loans amounting to Rs 146.3 billion or 103.7% of their annual target (Rs 141 billion) in fiscal year 2011-12, higher by 4.3% as compared with Rs 140.3 billion disbursed during the preceding fiscal year (FY2010-11). National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Habib Bank Limited (HBL), MCB Bank, Allied Bank Limited (ABL) and United Bank Limited (UBL) have surpassed their annual targets by achieving 106.0%, 103.5%, 103.3%, 102.8% and 100.7% disbursement respectively. Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) disbursed Rs 66.06 billion or 94.2% of its annual target of Rs 70.1 billion while Punjab Provincial Co-operative Bank Limited (PPCBL) by disbursing Rs 8.5 billion or 112.1% has surpassed its annual target (Rs 7.6 billion) during FY 2011-12.

Fourteen Domestic Private Banks as a group achieved 112.5% of their target (Rs 54.1 billion) by disbursing agri. loan of Rs 60.9 billion. The Bank of Khyber, Bank Al Habib, Faysal Bank, Soneri Bank, NIB Bank and Askari Bank have surpassed their annual agri. credit disbursement targets by achieving 174.6%, 147.6%,136.7%,132.4%,104.1% and 100.4 % disbursement respectively while other remaining banks could not meet their annual targets.

Five Microfinance Banks as a group disbursed agri. loans of Rs 12.1 billion or 99.3% of their annual target of Rs 12.2 billion during FY 2011-12. It may be pointed out here that the banks had been missing the agri. credit disbursement targets since 2008-09. Achievement of agri. credit disbursement target during the year ended June 2012 was extremely difficult in the backdrop of continuous declining trend in the overall Private Sector Credit and high agri. Non-performing Loans (NPLs) of major banks due to devastating floods of 2010 and heavy rains of 2011 in Sindh province. However, SBP adopted a multi-pronged strategy and made all out efforts in achieving the target of Rs 285 billion allocated by ACAC. The efforts of SBP officials not only helped banks in achieving their target but also surpassing it.

These efforts included swift settlement of crop loan insurance claims, close co-ordination with provincial revenue departments to facilitate the One Window Operation in agri. intensive districts for timely completion of revenue formalities, holding of farmers' awareness and financial literacy programs at grass root level, and follow up of targets with the top management of banks and their agri. Heads. The contribution by SBP BSC field offices in monitoring the regional targets was also greatly helpful.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN AGRICULTURE

Food is the first priority of the mankind which offers potentially enormous resources in agriculture to cater to the food requirement not only of the country but of the countries in the region. At the moment the oil rich Arab countries are confronted with food security problems and looking for investment in agriculture lands abroad.
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In Pakistan land About 25% of Pakistan's total land area is under cultivation and is watered by one of the largest irrigation systems in the world. Pakistan irrigates three times more acres than Russia. Agriculture accounts for about 21.2% of GDP and employs about 43% of the labor force. In Pakistan, the most agricultural province is Punjab and Sindh where wheat and cotton are the most grown. However rich lands with honey and milk are still awaiting for development both in Sindh, and Punjab.


http://www.equities.com/news/headline-story?dt=2012-07-24&val=300443&cat=material
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a Dawn report on Pakistan's rising citrus exports:

The exports of Pakistani citrus have registered an increase of 70 per cent in a year, Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim told National Assembly on Wednesday.

In a written reply to the question of Ms Nighat Parveen Mir, he said the exports of citrus have been increased up to US$162.6 million from July to March in the year 2011-12 compared to US$95.8 million during the corresponding period last year.

The country has also exported 247,909 metric ton mangoes to various countries from 2008 to 2010-11. In the year 2008-09, as many as 73,437 metric ton mangoes were exported, while 84,921 MT mangoes were exported in 2009-10, and 89,551 MT mangoes were exported in 2010-11.

In a written reply to another question he said, European Union – the union of 27 European countries is the largest business partner of Pakistan. EU had already announced concession on 75 products for Pakistan subject to waiver. The matter is now with European Parliament for legislation before implementation. Pakistan is making diplomatic efforts for getting concessions on 75 products.

He said Pakistan will qualify for duty free access to EU from January 1, 2014 as the country has ratified all the 27 international conventions.

In reply to another question he said, Pakistan and India are in the process of normalizing bilateral trade relations under resumed composite dialogue. As a first step, negative list of 1,209 tariff lines have been notified.

With the phasing out of negative list by December 31, 2012, complete trade normalization with India will be in place subject to the removal of the non-tariff barriers by the Indian government.

In written reply to question he said, country’s imports stands at $34.82 million during 2008-09, $34.71 million in 2009-10, $ US 40.41 million in 2010-11, and $44.91 million in 2011-12.

The volume of trade between Pakistan and Africa was $2.4 billion and $3.09 billion respectively.


http://dawn.com/2012/09/05/citrus-exports-register-70-percent-increase-in-one-year/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a BR report on subsidized tractors in Punjab:

Tractor manufacturers have more than 10,000 tractors of various makes in their stocks for immediate delivery under the Punjab government's Green Tractor Scheme 2012-13 to the farmers before sowing of Rabi crops, a senior tractor industry executive told Business Recorder, here on Friday.

The Punjab government has completed the process of providing 10,000 tractors to farmers through transparent computerised balloting of 0.275 million applicants of 18 to 35 years age having land holding of 2 and a half acres to 25 acres irrigable and 50 acres arid land across the province. The Punjab government is providing subsidy of Rs 200,000 on each tractor. The provincial government has so far provided 30,000 tractors during the past four years under the Green Tractor scheme to the small farmers with a subsidy of Rs 6 billion to boost agriculture production in the province.

The executives said though the auto manufactures have increased prices of cars t recently yet the tractor industry is not only maintaining June 2012 prices but also giving one percent discount on the sale of tractors under the Green Tractors Scheme. They however suggested that the government should not delay payment of Rs 200,000 to the tractor manufacturers given as subsidy on the Green tractors. The prices of tractors manufactured in Pakistan are still the most competitive in the region despite severe electricity load-shedding and increased cost of production, they emphasised.

They said that small farmers suffered huge financial losses due to rain floods in Sindh and Balochistan in the out-going monsoon season this year, therefore the government should not increase the proposed rate of General Sales Tax from 5 percent to 10 percent in January next year as it would put an additional burden on the agriculture sector.

They said that the tractor industry sold 5,675 tractors in the first two months of the current financial year as against 2,000 of the previous year. President Farmers Associates of Pakistan (FAP) Dr Tariq Bucha has appreciated the Punjab government's Green Tractors Scheme and said the government should make immediate arrangements for delivery of the tractors to the lucky farmers so that they could be used them for preparing the fields before sowing of the Rabi crops seeds in time. Bucha demanded of the government to also provide subsidy and reduce the rate of GST on accessories such as trolleys, ploughs, etc.


http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1245125/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's Pakistan Times on Benazir Tractor Scheme:

ISLAMABAD: All arrangements have been finalized to hold balloting of Benazir Tractors Scheme to provide subsidized tractors for growers.

The balloting for the scheme is expected to be held on September 6.This was stated by the Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture (MinFA), Nazar Muhammad Gondal responding to the live calls of the people after inaugurating the radio programme “Aaj Mandi key Bhao”, here on Monday.

The minister said that preparations had been finalized to provide 10,000 tractors to farmers under Benazir Tractor Scheme.

It may be recalled that about 355,000 printed application forms had been provided to farmers through the ZTBL branches in addition to those who applied on-line.

About 340,000 application were received, of which 277,106 were finalized for balloting of the scheme.

For Punjab province 5000 tractors, Sindh 2000, NWFP 1200 and for Balochistan 850 tractors would be allocated.

In AJK, FATA 350 tractors each while FANA 200 tractors and Federal Capital 50 tractors quota is fixed.


http://www.pakistantimes.net/pt/detail.php?newsId=3863
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a Forbes piece on Millat tractors in Pakistan:

Almost a year after floods devastated Pakistan, swamping 5.8 million acres of farmland and displacing millions of people, Ashaq Malik, who grows cotton, sugarcane and wheat on 865 acres in Punjab province, has reason to feel optimistic. After nearly a third of his land was inundated, today he is seeing a strong harvest. "As soon as the water level fell down, we started reconstructing the houses and working on the fields," says Malik. "Today there is no problem with the crops."

Companies that service the agriculture sector are also thriving in the rebound, none more than Millat Tractors of Lahore, which also manufactures other farm gear. Last year Millat earned 2.3 billion rupees ($29 million) on sales of $263 million, a 40% increase from the previous year. In the first quarter of 2011 profits grew 52% from the same period a year earlier..

To buy his 150,000 shares, Ansari--then a 39-year-old general manager--sold a plot of land, liquidated his retirement funds and borrowed money from his father. "It was a lot of money to me back then," he says. "Today it's like a lottery coming your way. The value has increased many, many fold since then."

Today the public, including Millat's 1,600 employees, owns 42% of the company; management and kin 28%; and banks and other institutions the rest. Employees are prosperous because of stock dividends and their salaries. Most of Millat's employees pay income tax--a sign of affluence in Pakistan--and have their own cars.
..


http://www.forbes.com/global/2011/0912/best-under-a-billion-11-millat-tractors-pakistan-after-flood.html
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a report on Sarhad Rural Support Program:

Operating in this region since 1989, the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) has quietly pioneered a model of development suggesting a viable pathway for transition to sustainable, post-carbon prosperity. The model is based fundamentally on participation of the marginalised rural poor at all levels — as planners, designers, implementers, and maintainers. Grassroots communities are empowered to self-mobilise into local community organisations which then become the vehicles of building ‘self-help capacity’, identifying the needs of households and procuring the training, skills and resources to undertake diverse development projects.

One of the SRSP’s flagship projects involves micro-infrastructure. So far, the impact has been astounding. Over 4,028 small-scale projects have been planned, delivered and maintained by communities themselves across the region, establishing micro-hydroelectric plants that allow communities to finance their own development — in turn generating new local jobs and service providers, clean water and sanitation schemes, farm-to-market roads, and new opportunities for small-scale agriculture.

Farming communities utilise water from the hydropower plants, diverting it to fields for kitchen gardening, multi-cropping and fish ponds. As the plants store rain and river water, they also provide effective disaster mitigation against monsoon rains and flooding. Through such projects, SRSP has enabled 308,540 men and women to, literally, transform their own lives.

In the Swat valley and Chitral district, for instance, SRSP has played a leading role in providing emergency humanitarian relief to local communities affected by floods in recent years. While this has involved providing tents, food packages and essential household non-food items, it has also involved longer-term recovery programmes to rehabilitate and strengthen local livelihoods.

SRSP staff began these programmes with extensive consultations with the local communities, many of whom had lived without electricity for nearly 60 years. Based on their vision and aspirations, households were organised into local community organisations, which determined the projects they needed and began implementing them. With SRSP bringing in some external funding from outside donor agencies, local communities provided the rest through a combination of in-kind contributions in terms of cash, labour and local materials.

Just this month, in the remote village of Mian Jair Wajoor Bandai in Swat, SRSP oversaw the completion of the village’s first 20 kilowatt micro hydro-electric power plant, producing electricity and 24 hour hot water for over 80 households. In September, a similar but larger project was inaugurated in the Kalash valley in Chitral, with a 200 kilowatt plant, meeting the energy needs of over 7,000 people across six villages.

One local Kalash resident from the village of Bumbarate, student Shah Nawaz, recounted the impact:

“At last we have come out of the darkness. For me, my joy knows no bounds as my friends from other areas would do their research on the internet and download study notes of an international standard, but here we could not. Now I’ll also be able to connect to the internet and will have an opportunity to do online research.”

Another resident and local elder, Abdul Aziz, explained that the government had neglected local facilities in the valley.

“We have spent our whole life in the darkness. We would face many problems when we traverse these hilly areas, and one can easily slip down. But now we will have so many benefits. Our children will study in the night and we will carry out domestic chores in lights.”
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So successful is this model, it has been widely replicated in developing countries. .


http://news.yourolivebranch.org/2012/12/23/pakistans-rural-poor-on-path-to-post-carbon-prosperity/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's Fresh Plaza on Pak potato export effort:

Pakistan's first state of the art potato washing and grading machine was installed in Karachi and is hoped to boost the dwindling export of potatoes.

The machine was imported at a cost of Rs 10 million and is of Indian and Mexican construction.

Abdul Wahid a leading fruit exporter and former Chairman of All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Importers and Exporters Association said that, despite bumper crops, a lack of modern processing and grading of the potato hindered its export.

The lack of modern equipment, for washing, for one thing, has limited export to a few markets, including Sri Lanka, Malaysia and some Gulf Countries.

The lucrative European, Central Asian and Russian markets have so far remained out of reach, with few exceptions.

The new machine is thought to be the first in the country that will wash and grade the potatoes, preparing them to a standard suitable for international trade.

To have a real impact there will need to be many more such machines imported into the country.


http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=105326
Riaz Haq said…
Here's how PPP boasts of its record of the last 5 years, as reported by PakistanToday:


The Pakistan People’s Party on Saturday released a 29-point report on its five year performance, highlighting major achievements during the period.
It makes special mention of the constitutional reforms, particularly the 18th, 19th and 20th amendments which provided provincial autonomy, transfer of presidential powers to parliament, smooth installation of caretaker governments and striking down of president’s power to dissolve the assemblies.
Munir Ahmad Khan, the PPP in-charge policy and planning cell, presented the report before the media at a press conference. He said that credit goes to the PPP for ensuring independence granted to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Khan also came up with a list of important decisions and steps taken by the PPP government to mitigate sufferings of the people despite terrorism in the country.
In this regard, he mentioned a record increase in wheat production, increase in salaries of govt officials up to 158 percent, disbursement of Rs 70 billion among 7.5 million deserving families through the Benazir Income Support Programmed and financial help to 135,000 deserving people by Pakistan Baitul Maal.
On steps taken by the government for economic revival, Khan cited the Pak-Iran agreement on the gas pipeline, agreement with China on Gwadar Port, increase in foreign exchange reserves from $6 billion in 2008 to $16 billion in 2013, increase in export from $18 billion in 2008 to $29 billion in 2012, boost in stock market from 5,220 points in 2008 to 18,185 points in 2013 and reduction in interest rate from 17 percent in 2008 to 9 percent in 2013.
He believed that these measures would help improve the economy and ameliorate the people.
Talking about the measures taken to increase production of electricity, the PPP leader told reporters that the PPP-led government added 3,600MW of electricity to the system besides initiating additional work on Mangla and Tarbela dams for increase of 4,500MW in the system.
The previous government, he added, also got $3.5 billion for Basha Dam, initiated Neelum-Jhelum, Gomal and Satpara dams and Thar Coal project to get electricity from coal besides Jamphar project to get electricity out of air.
He said further the PPP government also reinstated thousands of government servants who were dismissed during the last 13 years and also regularised thousands of contract employees.
Among steps taken by the government for welfare of the masses, Munir Khan listed resumption of trade union activities, distribution of shares among 500,000 industrial workers, cheep tractors to farmers through Benazir Tractor Scheme, increase rural economy from 50 billion in 2008 to 800 billion rupees in 2013.
He said Faisalabad-Multan Motorway and construction of thousands of kilometres of roads.


http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2013/03/30/news/national/ppp-releases-five-year-performance-report/
Riaz Haq said…
Here's a National Geographic story on sustainable farming in Pakistan:

Zacky Farms, just outside Lahore, is the brainchild of Zafar Khan, a Caltech-educated software engineer who runs one of the most successful information technology companies in Pakistan named Sofizar. What started off as a recreational venture is now a side-business supplying sustainably produced organic milk, vegetables and meat to nearby Lahore suburbs. The farm is modeled on a cyclical model of minimal wastes and multiple product usage. The cows are fed pesticide-free oats, clover and grass and their manure is used to fuela biogas plant which runs the dairy facility. In an era of electricity load-shedding, such an alternative source of energy at a local industrial scale is immensely valuable to replicate as a development path. The residue of the biogas is used to fertigate the fodder fields and vegetable tunnels, which along with green manuring obviates the use of fertilizers. Free-range chickens grace the fields and there is even a fish farm on site. Zafar and his Ukrainian-born wife are committed to sharing their experiences with other farming entrepreneurs in the country.

Further south in a more rural and remote part of Punjab, famed writer and erstwhile lawyer, Daniyal Mueenudin, maintains a mid-size farm which is exemplifying other kinds of innovations. The farm does not boast ecological farming practices, apart from tunnel farming that can help with land conservation and humidity control. However, Daniyal has changed the social landscape of his area through implementing a “living wage” for all his employees. Noting the high level of inequality in Pakistan’s hinterland, the Yale-educated former director of the university’s Lowenstein Human Rights Clinic, is practicing what he preached. He also owns a farm in Wisconsin and could have a comfortable life in the States but his social obligations keep him ensconced in Pakistan for most of the year.

Raising the wage several-fold for works and farm manager, and also offering bonus incentives for performance, has led to positive competition that can help to erode the feudal levels of income disparity which exist in this part of Pakistan. At the same time, Daniyal is also committed to providing new livelihood paths for the agrarian workers as automation reduces farm employment in some areas. He has has fully funded a school and provided a merit-based scholarship for advanced degrees to students from the nearby village. One of the children from this school (the first in her family to even go to school) is now making his way through medical school in Lahore!

Zafar and Daniyal’s stories of commitment to constructive farming for social and ecological good may appear to be outliers but they are catching on and provide hope to a country which is all too often shadowed by despair. In the suburbs of Islamabad, tax incentives and planning rules to encourage farming by urbanites are leading to a growing culture of reconnecting with the land in residential farms. In rural areas, the disaster caused by the floods of 2010 brought forth numerous aid agencies with new ideas for sustainable farming. The Pakistani diaspora, often known in the West for professions ranging from taxi-driving to engineering, may well find opportunities for reconnecting to their land in far more literal ways. With growing commitment from land-owners it just might be possible to use the existential shock of recent natural disasters that have befallen the country into a proverbial opportunity for positive change.


http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/23/farming-pakistan/
Riaz Haq said…
The trend of online shopping has witnessed rapid growth recently with several retail market portals springing up.
But, a recent increase in their penetration into far-flung areas has also boosted future prospects of the e-commerce market. What used to be limited to metropolitan cities has now spread to semi-urban and rural areas of the country. This is another potential market not only for shopping portals but also for fast moving consumer good (FMCG) companies, due to better availability of internet facilities throughout the country.
Online shopping portal, Daraz.pk, claims that online shopping websites have penetrated into the rural areas. In a recent survey, they revealed that around 48% of all orders placed in the first six months of 2014 were outside of Pakistan’s biggest cities – Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
“Half the world’s population will have internet access by 2017, showcasing the potential of e-commerce in the future,” said Daraz.pk co-founder Muneeb Idrees. “It is also expected that the number of mobile-connected devices will surpass the number of people. These statistics represent the expanding ecosphere of e-commerce.”
Established in August 2012, Daraz.pk is a project of Rocket Internet, the world’s largest incubator. The portal is currently offering over 400 brands in 200 cities across Pakistan. After the initial success, other venture capital firms took notice and starting initiating contact with local businessmen in the industry to fund entrepreneurs.
The website gets receives their highest number of orders (six per cent) from Ghotki, a semi-urban area in Sindh. The highest basket size across the country was from Lala Musa in Punjab, doubling the average order size of Lahore.
“In general, more than half our orders are from outside Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad,” said Idrees. “People in smaller towns have access to social media and television. They learn about new products, but don’t have malls in their cities to buy these products.”
The e-commerce market in Pakistan is estimated at around $25-30 million, in comparison to the total retail market of approximately $42 billion. Internet availability, along with introduction of branchless banking through cellular technology, has done wonders for the market.
According to estimates, branchless banking transactions have witnessed a growth of 327% during 2011-13. Daraz.pk is one of the few businesses utilising mobile commerce in Pakistan with great numbers. The management said that 20% of the transactions of the portal take place via mobile phones.
FMCG giant Unilever recently entered in an agreement with Daraz.pk to use its marketing reach all over Pakistan for its beauty and personal care products. The management thinks that this deal could be vital for the retail industry as previously no FMCG had seriously looked into the e-commerce sector. http://tribune.com.pk/story/749770/e-commerce-online-shopping-making-its-way-into-rural-areas/
Riaz Haq said…
Potato prices plunge in Pakistan with bumper crop. The total domestic surplus, according to farmers, might be anywhere between 2.5-3m tonnes. The country has never been able to export more than 100,000 tonnes, and has averaged at around 80,000 tonnes. And these figures were achieved during regional shortages, when crops in winter potato producing countries (Bangladesh and India) had failed.
This year, both these competitors have their own surpluses and would compete with Pakistan for foreign markets’ share.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1168386/potato-prices-crash
Riaz Haq said…
Addressing the “Fruit and Vegetable Promotion Conference” in Karachi on Friday, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan said that the dream of boosting exports of fruits and vegetables has been materialised thanks to the introduction of new technologies by the agriculture scientists.

“I am proud of the agriculture scientists, whose untiring efforts in research helped boost the exports of fruits, especially mango and vegetables from the country,” the minister said, adding that country’s mango was facing severe problems of fruit-fly disease, resulting in rejection of several consignments and consequently defaming the country besides inflicting huge financial losses to the national exchequer.

However, scientists of the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) PARC in collaboration with All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association managed to control the disease by introducing hot water treatment technology which resulted in export enhancement. He said that due to these efforts, the country has now become able to export mango and several other fruits and vegetables, opening up new avenues for country exports in the markets of USA, European Union, Japan and other countries.

The conference was organised by the DPP PARC in collaboration with All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association with an aim to promote agriculture production and exports.

Speaking on the occasion, Ministry of National Food Security and Research Secretary Seerat Asghar said that the ministry was taking all best possible measures to promote research and development in the agriculture sector.

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2015/04/24/business/new-technology-helped-boost-fruits-and-vegetables-exports/
Riaz Haq said…
Blessings and bane that come with rain
Zulfiqar Kunbhar September 3, 2017

http://tns.thenews.com.pk/blessings-bane-come-rain/#.WbSExtOGN-U

Sindh’s Thar Desert has witnessed severe drought in the past four years. The long dry spell caused acute shortage — of food for humans, fodder for livestock and water for wildlife. During this worst drought in the recent history, hundreds of infants have died of malnutrition. The famine like situation has killed not just livestock, an important source of livelihood, but also wild species.
But the recent monsoon rains had a magical effect on the desert which has turned green from brown, promising good times ahead not just for humans but wildlife as well.
At the same time poaching and trafficking of baby wild animals including peafowl, deer, partridge and wild rabbit in the region is picking up. Thar Desert is home to around 300 species of mammals, birds and reptiles.
Prolonged drought had impacted the economy, society and environment of Thar Desert. Natural water ponds (locally known as Tarae) dried up and ground water level deepened, affecting all forms of life. There was no cultivation. Green pastures, which are the main source of food for livestock and wildlife, had depleted. Locals would spend most of their time in search of food and water. In the drought years, almost half of the total population of locals migrated along with their cattle to the neighbouring barrage areas in search of food. So did the wildlife species.

Although last year there were some rains in the desert they were not on time, hence not beneficial for locals as they could not cultivate crop due to delayed rains. Also, there was no greenery.
This year monsoon arrived on time. The desert received the first rain in the beginning of July that continued for several days, restoring the beauty of the desert.
Rain has provided the much-awaited relief to the living beings and natural habitat. Thar Desert is recovering from the bad impacts of drought. Wetter Thar means greenery and pastures all around as this part is considered the most fertile desert. There is greenery on vast areas of sand dunes locally called ‘Bhit’. That also means better food supply to flora and fauna of the area.
Much of Thar Desert’s portion lies in Tharparkar district of Sindh, stretching over 22,000 square kilometres. 300 kilometres east of Karachi, along Indian border, it has faced persistent but periodic droughts for the past several decades.
Riaz Haq said…
#Pakistan PM to open 363 Km Kachhi canal to irrigate 72,000 acres farmland in Dear Bugti, #Balochistan. #agriculture

http://nation.com.pk/multan/14-Sep-2017/pm-inaugurates-kachhi-canal-project-in-dera-bugti-today


Quetta - Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is scheduled to arrive in Balochistan today (Thursday) for the inauguration of Kachhi Canal Project upon its completion in Dera Bugti.

As per reports, Premier Abbasi will arrive in Dera Bugti to formally inaugurate Kachhi Canal Project on Thursday for which all preparations have been finalised and he will also address a gathering of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers and supporters in Sui where a large number of tribal elites are expected to join the PML-N fold.

Tight security arrangements have been made for prime minister’s scheduled visit to Balochistan.

It merits mentioning here that the Kachhi Canal Project was kicked off in 2002 but delay in its completion made the cost of the project go high and the project kept on moving on a snail’s pace. After 15 years, its preliminary phase has been completed, while in the second phase the canal will irrigate more areas.

The 363-km long Kachhi Canal Project is located in Punjab whose 281 km part is in Punjab and 80 km falls in Balochistan. The canal originates from Taunsa Barrage at Indus River. The Kachhi Canal will provide sustainable irrigation water supply to 72,000 acres of agricultural land thus bringing green revolution in Balochistan.

The project embraces significant position in Balochistan water infrastructure and agriculture sector which will fuel financial progress in the province.

Balochistan Governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai, Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri and other ministers, MPAs and security officials will be present at the inaugural ceremony of Kachhi Canal Project.

Riaz Haq said…
#Pakistan #wheat and #sugar #exports jump 100% in July 2017. #tobacco exports up 835%. Vegetable exports up 27% http://www.blackseagrain.net/novosti/pakistan-wheat-sugar-exports-increased-by-100pc-in-july …

The exports of wheat and sugar from the country during the first month of current financial year witnessed 100 percent increased as compared the corresponding month of last year.

During the month of july, 2017, about 353 metric tons of wheat valuing US$ 114,000 exported as against the export of the same month last year.

According the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics 58,555 metric tons of sugar worth of US$ 27.584 million were also exported from the country during the period under review.

Meanwhile, about 188 metric tons of tobacco valuing US$ 730,000 exported as compared the exports of 24 metric tons worth of US$ 78,000 of same period last year.

The exports of tobacco from the country registered 835.90 percent increase during first month of current financial year as compared the same month of last year, it added

During the period under review, about 24,393 metric tons of fresh fruits worth US$ 19.483 million exported as compared the exports of the corresponding period of last year.

On the other hand about 32,702 metric tons of vegetables valuing US$ 10.330 million exported.

During the period under review fruit exports decreased by 16.10 percent, where as vegetables exports increased by 26.80 percent respectively, it added.
Riaz Haq said…
#Pakistan exported #food commodities worth $500m in July-Aug 2017. #exports #rice #wheat #fish #sugar

https://www.geo.tv/latest/159391-pakistan-exported-commodities-worth

The country earned US$ 512.3 million by exporting different food commodities during the first two months of the current financial year as compared the earnings of the corresponding period of last year.

During the period from July to August 2017, food group exports from the country increased by 30.6 percent as compared the exports of the same period of last year.

According to the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, since the last two months exports of rice grew by 40 percent as around 428,993 metric tons of rice worth US$ 223.97 million were exported.

The rice exports, during first two months of last financial year, were recorded at 3810,861 metric tons, which were worth US$ 159.54 million, it added.

Meanwhile, the exports of basmati rice grew by 10.35 percent and about 59,433 metric tons of basmati rice, worth US$ 62.741 million, were exported as compared the exports of 59,192 metric tons, valuing US$ 56.857 million, in the same period, last year.

The exports of rice other than basmati also witnessed an increase of 58.98 percent, around 369.580 metric tons of rice costing US$ 161.198 million exported as compared to the exports of 251,669 metric tons worth US$ 102.888 million last year.

From July-August, 2017-18, fruit and vegetable exports increased by 8.74 percent and reached at 56,280 metric tons worth of US$ 20.58 million against the exports of 73,751 metric tons of US$ 18.88 million of the same period last year, it added.

The other commodities which witnessed an increase in their exports during the period under review include fish and fish production, which increased by 19.63 percent, wheat and sugar increased by 100 percent respectively.

It may be recalled here that imports of the food commodities into the country also witnessed an increase of 27.18 percent and about US$ 1.123 billion was spent on the import of different food items to fulfill the domestic requirements.

Riaz Haq said…
Pakistani farmers fast adopting tunnel farming techniques
November 11, 2017 By:Samaa Web Desk Published in Blogs Be the first to comment!

https://www.samaa.tv/blogs/2017/11/pakistani-farmers-fast-adopting-tunnel-farming-techniques/

Tunnel farming is not less than a windfall for farmers in Punjab and other upper parts of Pakistan as vegetables grown two months ahead of the actual time window fetch three to five times more price.

Recent uppish trends in the prices of the kitchen crops especially tomatoes and onions have made off-season veggies technology more popular among the farmers.

“I sold cucumbers grown at my farm at a rate of Rs 50 per kilogram last month. But these are now fetching now Rs 22 per kilogram in the whole sale market, almost twice the prices these are sold for in season,” says Allah Rakha, an owner of a farm in Kharianwala in Central Pakistan province of Punjab.

Tunnels, the structures comprising steel pipes covered by plastic sheets have lately mushroomed in Pakistan’s plains, mostly in central Punjab districts of Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib and Gujranwala, following the suit of farms in Khyber Pakhtun Khawa, the north-western province.

Besides Cucumbers, other high-value vegetables grown in Pakistan through tunnel farming include- tomatoes, chilies, Caspicum (Shimla Mirch) and gourds.

The nurseries of tomatoes, chilies and caspcus are being transplanted these days in Punjab and the crop is expected to be at fruiting stage by February.

The technology not only helps produce the crop at least two months earlier than the traditional cultivation season but also saves the crop from all sorts of severe weather and handling related problems. In Punjab, the provincial government is providing subsidy for the purchase of drip irrigation gadgets while USAID is providing technical and financial assistance to growers in Khyber Pakhtun Khawa. But due to lack of awareness, the area under tunnel farms in Punjab is not more than 350 acres which is just iota when compared to millions of acres of agriculture land in the province.

“More and more growers should turn to this technology; We are ready to provide all sorts of assistance,” says Dr. Zafaryab Hyder , Director General Agriculture Extension, Punjab.

In spite all the constraints, the new technology has opened new vistas of prosperity for the farmers who had been victim of subsistence culture over the last several decades. Just a decade ago, the people of Punjab had to relish on the vegetables grown in the neighboring provinces of Sindh, Khyber PakhtunKhawa and Balochistan at exorbitant prices. The vegetables like bitter gourd, okra, peas , tomatoes, chilies , cucumbers from other provinces fetched atleast twice as compared to those produced in the Punjab just a couple of months later. However, the introduction of tunnel farming has produced new array of opportunities, initially for the progressive farmers who can get price for tomatoes, capsicum (Bell Peppers) thrice in early time window than the traditional season of cultivation. The owners of land tracts with tunnel farming are mostly educated youth, mostly agriculture graduates and Masters’ in Business Administration. They are no more being exploited by the middle man.

Rather, they provide high-value off-season vegetables directly to hotels and departmental stores. Besides vegetables, even the growers of strawberry in Lahore and Sheikhupura districts have adopted the tunnel farming to protect their crops from the severe weather conditions. With the passage of every day, the future of this new technology is becoming more and more bright especially the fertile agricultural lands of Punjab. The future of tunnel farming seems bright in Pakistan as growers have started embracing the technology lately.

However, the ongoing smoggy weather in the Central Pakistan has cast ill-effects on the crop with hindering the photosynthesis process much needed for the plant growth. Growers fear that per acre yield may decline drastically if the unfavorable weather conditions continue.
Riaz Haq said…
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE > BUSINESS

Rags to riches: Tunnel farming: the swift money maker

By Saquib Saeed
Published: June 7, 2015

https://tribune.com.pk/story/899495/rags-to-riches-tunnel-farming-t...

Tunnel farming is a low-tech, but highly unconventional vegetable growing technique that started in the early 2000s in Pakistan. Currently, it is centred in the districts of Arifwala, Vehari and Mailsi in central Punjab with little emerging pockets in Faisalabad, Jhang, Multan and Rahim Yar Khan.

According to estimates of the Punjab agricultural department, there are more than 200,000 acres of tunnel farms in Punjab and the trend is growing. A very high urbanisation rate in Pakistan keeps creating greater demand for vegetables in the urban centres.

Currently, most tunnel farms remain between 10 to 20 acres in size and begin cultivation in autumn. That’s when support structures made out of bamboos, steel or aluminum pipes and steel wire ropes are erected around the plantation. These structures form rows that are 4 to 5 feet wide and have a height that’s between 3 to 12 feet. Known as low tunnels, walk through tunnels or high tunnels in their parlance. The higher the structure the more expensive it is to erect. Polythene sheets are spread on top of the structures, creating tunnel like cocoons within which vegetables are grown.

The winter sunshine passes through the transparent polythene sheets and its heat is trapped inside; while in the cold weather, the frost and the winter rains are kept well outside. This makeshift greenhouse deceives the vegetables into believing that it’s time to flower and fruit. As the weather warms up, the polythene sheets are removed.
The vegetables from tunnel farms arrive two to three months earlier than the same varieties grown conventionally in the open. Consumers no longer have to wait till April; they can savor their favourite vegetables in early spring or even in the middle of winters. Off-season arrival ensures that they command higher prices. This remains the single most important economic driver for tunnel farming.
Tunnel farmers routinely achieve an astonishing 500% yield over conventional farmers. Surprisingly, it’s not done by using exotic seeds or fertilisers. Instead, tunnel farmers adopt low-tech methods. All of their inputs such as the bamboo sticks, metal pipes, steel wire ropes, and polythene sheets, fishing lines, seeds, fertilisers and insecticides remain mundanely commonplace. What’s surprising is the innovative use that they put these inputs to; and with stunning results.
Mulching is one such technique in which they cover the ground with black polythene sheets and puncture evenly-spaced holes in it. Vegetable seeds are sown into these holes. This eliminates weeds that consume and ultimately waste the nutrients. Devoid of sunlight, nothing else apart from the plant itself can grow. The sheet also trap moisture in the ground and prevents its rapid evaporation. Conventional farming loses up to 50% of its water to rapid evaporation, tunnel arming doesn’t.
While within each row, thin fishing lines are strung as mesh to provide vertical space for the vegetables to grow. Most vegetables have indeterminate growth, much like creepers and vines. These mesh provide vertical pathways for the plant to grow. Depending on the height of the tunnel, each plant therefore grows at least three to five times larger in size and its reach than its conventionally grown, on ground twin. Consequently, it also bears more fruits.
Tunnel farmers also apply three to five times more chemical fertilisers and micro nutrients than conventional farmers. Every day, they patrol their tunnels much like a spinning mill owner would patrol his spindle frames. The ripe vegetables are identified, picked, weighed and sold daily under their watchful eyes.
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