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Jamote's stress oneconomic dimensionof agricultureRECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Minister for Food and Agriculture Dr. Shafqat Ali Shah Jamote said on Thursday country needed economic dimension of agriculture rather than socio-culture and political.

Jamote was speaking on "Autarky in Agricultural Production" at the local function, organised by the English Speaking Union of Pakistan (ESUP) here.

"In agriculture sector we have always concentrated on political and socio-cultural dimension and ignored economic dimension, which should be the first dimension to be concentrated," he said.

Jamote said the time has come to set our priorities in agriculture sector to enhance its productivity.

He said the forthcoming policy would help the country to achieve higher growth rate Ñ double than population growth rate Ñ devise higher export of agricultural commodities and higher growth of agro based industry in the country.

He rejected the notion that the country was facing shortage of agriculture output. "We are self-sufficient in all crops but we have to set our priorities and limitations," he said.

Giving the details he said that in the first decade the country's wheat production was 3.5 million tonnes, which was 16.5 million tonnes in 1990s. Similarly in 1950 the production of cotton was 1.6 million bales, which was 9.5 million bales in 1990s. Rice production was 873,000 tonnes to 3.8 million tonnes in 1990s.

"Our wheat production is satisfactory but export to Afghanistan up to 2 million tonnes is the main reason of deficiency in wheat supply. If we can deal with the issue we can solve our wheat shortage issue," Jamote said.

He said the wheat deficiency in the country was because of wrong policies. "Even Afghanistan can be fed if we are able to distribute wheat in proper manner," Jamote said.

He said over the years it has become a tradition in this country that subsidies, meant for poor, were enjoyed by certain segment of the society because of faulty distribution system.

He accepted that the country needed to overcome edible oil and tea shortage. "Edible oil and tea are eating away major chunk of forex", he said adding import bill for tea is alone 140 million dollar."

Expressing satisfaction over crops yield, he said imports were going down and local production of tea was successful in the Northern Areas of the country.

Explaining the problem related with agriculture sector he said the fundamental issues need to be addressed as we have achieved certain level of productivity and now we have to look into market side.

"Supply side is fine but demand side needs to be looked into", he said.