Agriculture — the weakest link
Pakistan imported $1.3 billion worth of cotton, sugar, and wheat in the last six months – such numbers are unprecedented. These three are staple crops and farmers’ livelihood, food security,…
Needed: renewed focus on agriculture
Rural areas of Pakistan are characterized by high incidence of multi-dimensional poverty and low levels of financial inclusion. These areas are also home to 63% of Pakistan’s population. Almost all…
Agriculture without farmers
With the passing of the United Nations’ highly contested Food Systems Summit last month, the task of “feeding the world” has taken on a newfound urgency. But one point apparently…
Rethinking agriculture
The poverty of social science in Pakistan is reflected in the fact that there have been few attempts to rethink the political economy of agriculture and industry and the linked…
Agriculture credit disbursement
It is good to see that private sector credit is picking up handsomely with the revival in economic growth and priority sectors of the economy are benefiting a lot from…
Women in agriculture
The Sindh government has taken an important step towards protecting the rights of female agriculture workers, with the approval of the ‘Sindh Women Agricultural Workers draft Bill 2019’. This becomes…
CPEC moves into agriculture
A VERY interesting annexure in the latest State Bank’s annual report provides much-needed detail on the entry of Chinese firms in Pakistan’s agriculture sector. Agriculture appears to be one of…
Looking at agriculture reforms
Whether in cotton or wheat, or many other agricultural products, the yield per acre in Pakistan is lower than both China and India. Our lower agricultural productivity means that Pakistani…
Innovations in Agriculture
Urea demand in the country currently stands at 5.833 million tons. But in August 2018 Urea stocks hit the lowest level of 87,000 tons, 12 percent less than the monthly…
Agriculture: disruptive innovations
Last week I chaired a meeting of the United Nations Advisory Board on Science Technology and Innovation formed by the UN Commission for the South and Central Asian region (UNESCAP)…
