Since partition, India and Pakistan had different psyche for development of Agriculture. The Prime Minister of India was conscious of the fact that India is deficit in Food and in order to feed such a huge and galloping population, he declared Agriculture as priority sector of the economy and hence larger funds were provided to Agriculture.
Indian Punjab was picked up as model province for higher production of food, grains viz wheat, rice and maize. Indian Punjab has established three Agriculture Universities at Ludhina, Haryana and Palampur. The Funds allocated to these Universities were 80 crore, 22 crore and 12 crore respectively. Sufficient funds were allocated for research.
Electricity for tube wells was given free, storage capacity was built to store the surplus food, Marketing Mandies were developed which remained open for 24 hours, and support price was assured to the farmers; thus special attention was paid for development of Food and Agriculture.
The Indian Agriculture Industry is on the brink of a revolution that will modernize the entire food chain, as the total food production in India is likely to double in the next ten years. The agriculture food industry also assumes significance owing to India’s sizable agrarian economy, which account for over 35% of GDP and employs around 65% of the population. Both in term of foreign investment and number of joint ventures/ foreign collaborations, the consumer food segment has the top priority. The other attractive features of the Indian agro Industry such as deep-sea fishing, aqua culture, milk and milk products, meat and poultry segments have the capacity to lure foreigners with promising benefits.
On the other hand the psyche in Pakistan was different. It was believed that we have already autarky in Food and we have limited Industry. High level Bureaucracy which took over charge of almost all the Ministries in Pakistan has no knowledge of ground realities of Agriculture prevailing in the Country. Such as very yields of crops and 90% of farmers were poor and can not invest. In Agriculture there was no credit facility for the farmers. They did not know that if Agriculture is not developed, from where the Industries will get the raw material.
It was not in their comprehension that they should establish industries like Fertilizer, Agriculture Machinery, Pesticides and Seed, which will act as a vehicle for higher agriculture production.
They paid attention only to consumer industries such as textile and sugar. No doubt, these industries were also needed to consume, agriculture production but such industries could be developed. Later on or the job would have been entrusted to private sector who has knowledge of these industries but were completely ignorant about agriculture industries.
Very meager amount was allocated to research and education. University of Agriculture Faisalabad which “is known as mother University even in India” has still only a budget of 32 crore as compared to 120 crore in Indian Punjab. 80% of our Agriculture University budget is spent on salaries and allowance of the staff and 20% on research.
The Planning Commission of Pakistan allocated very meager funds to Agriculture. In the first five years plan from 1955 to 1960, only 9.46% funds were provided while agriculture was contributing 75% to GDP at that time. It is interesting to know that allocations in others plan period were also very low.
Water sector was also neglected except in Ayub Khan time when Mangla and Terbela dams were built and more allocations were made to water sector.
Let’s now analyze why our food production is not increasing and why we have not been able to achieve the potential which definitely exists and can be achieved? The main reason of low production of food grains and specially that of wheat is that income from wheat is not compatible with that of cash crops. A comparative income statement given below.
Crops Gross income in Rs. Expenses in Rs. Net income in Rs.
Wheat
Punjab 4467 4343 124
Sindh 4322 4018 305
Cotton
Punjab 13072 6651 6421(52times)
Sindh 8045 4247 3798(12times)
Sunflower
Punjab 6090 4795 1295(10times)
Sindh NA NA NA
Cotton + Wheat
Punjab 17538 10944 6545(53 times)
Sindh 12367 8265 4102(14times)
Sugarcane
Punjab 11427 8970 2456(20times)
Sindh 13697 10112 3585(12 times)
From the above statement it is evident that cotton, sunflower and sugarcane give higher income 52, 10 and 20 times respectively as compared to wheat. Therefore farmers are not attracted to grow food grains.
The World Bank and International Monitoring Fund (IMF) under the conditions of its aids loans do not allow subsidy to agriculture sector in Pakistan while on the other hand India, our neighboring country, is providing a subsidy of Rs. 50 billion for fertilizers. The farmers in East Punjab have not to pay the water rates and also have very nominal rates of electricity for tube wells etc. 80% of the farmers of our country are very poor and they need support at the sowing time of crops, therefore Government has to improvise some sort of incentives to them. It is suggested that just like “Food Stamp Scheme” provided to poor people “Wheat Production Stamp Scheme” may be started in which all those farmers who give higher production can be helped.