Comment by Riaz Haq on May 31, 2017 at 10:24pm

#Swiss #agriculture #tech giant Syngenta 
to invest $1.4bln in #Pakistan | Business | http://thenews.com.pk 

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/207811-Syngenta-to-invest-14bln-in...

KARACHI: Syngenta Pakistan, a Switzerland-based company, dealing in premier crop protection and the third largest seeds business, announced to support small and medium growers to take up modern ways of farming, with the primary objective to ensure food security in the country, a statement said on Wednesday.

Tina Lawton, Syngenta’s head of Asia-Pacific Region, made her first visit to Pakistan and toured Syngenta’s research and development facility near Lahore to review Syngenta’s operations and understand the Pakistan agriculture market and how to support its further development, it added. She also met Syngenta franchisees and farmers to get insight on the market; whereby, assuring them Syngenta’s commitment to Pakistan and upholding its long tradition of 50 plus years presence in the country. She also discussed the modernisation of the Naya-savera Franchise model with the use of latest pioneering technology.

Lawton said that Syngenta’s transition of new ownership to ChemChina will not affect its status as a Swiss company and it will continue to focus on long-term investment through over $1.4 billion annual investment in research and development in Pakistan, the statement said.

Lawton’s visit proved extremely fruitful and truly demonstrated the Syngenta’s commitment to improve the life of farmers. Syngenta is all geared up to transform the agriculture sector of Pakistan, making it a self-sufficient economy to meet its food requirements by bringing in new technology and products, which will cater to the needs of the ever-growing agriculture industry in Pakistan, it added.

Comment by Riaz Haq on July 13, 2017 at 7:38am

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE > BUSINESS
Pakistan could eat India’s share of basmati rice exports

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1456663/pakistan-eat-indias-share-basm...


Pakistan could target India’s basmati rice share in the global market, a likelihood sparked by stringent policies placed by the European Union (EU) on the presence of hazardous pesticides in the commodity, said an official.

From January 1, 2018, all countries that export basmati rice to the EU must bring down the maximum residue limit (MRL) level for Tricyclazole, a pesticide, to 0.01 mg per kg. Up till now, the EU was accepting 0.03 mg per kg from different countries, including India.

The chance that Pakistan could eat up a share of India’s market comes from the fact that the country’s farmers do not use such chemicals to protect their crops.

However, Indian farmers widely use the pesticide under scrutiny and exporters fear that up to 95% of basmati shipments could take a hit by the new regulation.

Since new EU regulations could completely choke off Indian basmati exports, an Indian government delegation is leaving for Brussels this week to discuss the restrictions.

On the other hand, a Pakistani basmati exporter says this presents an opportunity to grab India’s market share, because it will at least take two cycles to reduce the consumption of Tricyclazole in the country.

“Pakistan currently exports 100,000 tons of basmati to the EU a year, which can go up to 250,000 tons per annum after EU regulations,” Matco Foods Pvt Limited Director Faizan Ali Ghori told The Express Tribune.

India, the world’s biggest exporter of basmati rice with a share of about 70%, exported 350,000 tons of basmati to the EU worth $268 million in fiscal year 2016-17.

Raising Rs1 billion from the stock market

Meanwhile, Matco Foods – one of the leading basmati rice exporters in Pakistan – is expecting to raise Rs1 billion through the Initial Public Offering (IPO) it has planned for around September this year.

The company plans to invest the proceeds in its two rice glucose plants in Karachi. Rice glucose is the main ingredient for pharmaceutical, confectionery, and juice industries.

“We want to move towards value added products to increase exports,” said Ghori.

The company exports rice to over 60 countries.

Matco’s first rice glucose with a capacity of 10,000 tons per annum is being commissioned in Karachi at an investment of Rs350 million. The other factory will have a capacity of 20,000 tons that will be set up in the next one to two years.

The company will prefer international markets as it expects to fetch as much as $11,000 per ton against a price range of just $400-$500 per ton in the domestic market, Ghori said, adding that there is a growing demand in western markets for rice glucose.

Currently, there are two rice glucose factories in Pakistan – both in Karachi due to proximity to ports and export markets.

Matco’s management believes the demand for rice glucose will increase because it is not genetically modified and safer for children. At present, over 90% domestic demand of pharmaceutical and confectionary industries is being met by corn glucose.

CPEC opens avenues for agri-exports

“There is so much room for diversification in rice exports because Pakistan does not make value added products from rice that have huge domestic as well as international demand,” he added.

Comment by Riaz Haq on August 18, 2017 at 10:26am

#CPEC provides avenues for #Pakistan to get a big slice of $100 billion #China's food imports

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1484291/cpec-provides-avenues-target-1...

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a golden opportunity for overall development of this region and Pakistan should reorganise its agriculture sector to get a major slice of the $100 billion worth of agriculture produce imports by China, suggested Muhammad Mehmood, Punjab Agriculture Secretary.

Speaking at the launch of a study on “CPEC – Prospects & Challenges for Agriculture”, Mehmood pointed out that nearly one-fourth of the world’s population was living in China and most of its exports would be routed through Pakistan after the completion of CPEC. “Containers full of exportable surplus will be sent to various international markets, but on their return, these containers will be empty and we must capitalise on the opportunity to export our surplus agriculture produce to China,” he said.

Mehmood revealed that per capita income of China was increasing substantially, bringing a visible change in people’s lifestyle and food habits there. “Like other affluent societies, they also prefer rich and costly food and fruits,” he said, adding Pakistan could get maximum benefit of the emerging change.

“We are concentrating on high-value crops and a 10-year programme has been evolved to develop one lakh acres of land in the Potohar region for planting grape and other high-value crops.”

Major Chinese importers will also be invited to utilise this land for growing high-value fruits in addition to developing the agriculture processing industry on modern scientific lines.

“Its trickle-down effect will provide an opportunity to our farmers to upgrade their technologies and develop agriculture as a profitable business by shunning centuries-old practices,” Mehmood said.

He told the audience that foreign consultants had been engaged to analyse why Pakistan had not been able to get its due share in Chinese imports despite its friendly relations and close proximity.

He suggested that Pakistan should renegotiate the bilateral trade agreement and a meeting was expected in the current or next month. After that, “we would be in a position to decide which strategy is suitable for Pakistan to enhance its share in Chinese imports.”

Responding to a question about a research project on the China-Pakistan agricultural technical cooperation, the agriculture secretary insisted that the Punjab Agriculture Research Board was extending liberal grants to the viable projects planned by the public and private sectors.

“Initially, Rs259 million had been allocated for this purpose. The funding was immediately increased to Rs750 million and it would be further enhanced to Rs3 billion in the next three years,” he said.

He asked the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry president to send the project to the research board where a group of experts would review its viability and approve the requisite grant.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 27, 2018 at 6:54pm

Long-term Agricultural Growth in India, Pakistan,
and Bangladesh from1901/02 to 2001/02
Takashi Kurosaki

http://www.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/primced/documents/No46_dp_up_Pdf_2013.pdf

When we look at the
results for each decade, we find that the total value-added grew very little up to the Partition in all
three countries. Only in Pakistan during the 1900s and 1930s, the growth rate was positive and
statistically significant. When the whole pre-1947 period is taken, Y grew at 1.24% per annum in
Pakistan and at 0.37% in India, and it declined at 0.30% in Bangladesh, all of which were statistically
significant. After the Partition, Y increased in every decade in all three countries. The growth rates
were generally higher in Pakistan than in India and Bangladesh. When the whole post-1947 period is
taken, Y grew at 3.46% per annum in Pakistan, at 2.28% in India, and at 1.73% in Bangladesh. The
column “C.V.” in Table 1 shows how variable was the production around the fitted values in terms of
the coefficient of variation. The value-added was the most variable during the 1900s and 1910s but
was stabilized since then, possibly due to the development of irrigation. The stabilization of
agricultural production after the Partition is observed in all three countries.
Although these growth rates, except for the negative growth in the pre-1947 period in Bangladesh,
seem impressive, the growth performance became more moderate if we look at labor productivity,
which is a better measure for evaluating the welfare of population engaged in agriculture than the total
production measure. The long-term trends of Y/L (agricultural value-added per labor) are shown in
Figure 2,7 and parametrically-estimated growth rates are reported in the middle columns of Table 1.
Using growth rates of Y/L, the pre-Partition contrast across three countries become more clear-cut:
statistically-significant positive growth in Pakistan (+0.76%), insignificant growth in India, and
statistically-significant negative growth in Bangladesh (−0.62%). Since 1947, labor productivity grew
at statistically-significant growth rates in all three countries.
4.2 Contribution of land productivity improvement to agricultural growth

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 10, 2018 at 4:48pm

India: Agriculture value added per worker, constant USD: For that indicator, The World Bank provides data for India from 1980 to 2018. The average value for India during that period was 877.56 U.S. dollars with a minumum of 645.29 U.S. dollars in 1980 and a maximum of 1202.45 U.S. dollars in 2016. See the global rankings for that indicator or use the country comparator to compare trends over time.

https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/India/Agriculture_productivity/

Pakistan: Agriculture value added per worker, constant USD: For that indicator, The World Bank provides data for Pakistan from 1980 to 2018. The average value for Pakistan during that period was 1501.55 U.S. dollars with a minumum of 1011.2 U.S. dollars in 1981 and a maximum of 1757.26 U.S. dollars in 2015. See the global rankings for that indicator or use the country comparator to compare trends over time.

https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Pakistan/Agriculture_productivity/

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 19, 2023 at 10:33am

The challenge of shrinking farm sizes


https://www.dawn.com/news/1730732


Many research studies have explored and proven the inverse relationship between farm size and crop yields. In Pakistan, the solution undeniably lies in consolidating agricultural holdings into somewhat larger and more efficient farms. But the real challenge is to devise and execute effective policy measures. Among the options explored, cooperative farming and corporate farming are often the most cited.


In Pakistan, the average farm size has steadily declined from 5.3 hectares in 1971 to 3.1 hectares in 2000 and then subsequently to 2.6 hectares in 2010 (Agricultural Census 2010). As a result, the agriculture sector is now dominated by smallholders. Over 90 per cent of farms are smaller than 12 acres, out of which 67pc are below even five acres (two hectares).


The majority of farms have become so small due to successive land divisions that they are no longer economically and operationally viable. Small size is a major limiting factor for increasing labour and land productivity, mechanisation of farms, optimal application of quality farm inputs, and adoption of advanced agricultural practices and technologies.

At the same time, more than 8.2 million farms pose a serious challenge for the government to provide extension services, offer credit facility to all farmers, enhance their effective access to the market and even implement government programmes for farmers, primarily due to the high transaction costs involved. All these challenges translate into higher production costs and, in turn, a lack of competitiveness. As a result, farmers demand farm subsidies, putting additional pressure on the country’s scarce financial resources.

Interestingly, in East Asian countries like South Korea and Japan, instead of shrinking, farm sizes are increasing. In fact, thriving manufacturing and service sectors have provided lucrative employment opportunities, resulting in labour migration from agriculture to non-agriculture sectors.

Many research studies have explored and proven the inverse relationship between farm size and crop yields. In Pakistan, the solution undeniably lies in consolidating agricultural holdings into somewhat larger and more efficient farms. But the real challenge is to devise and execute effective policy measures. Among the options explored, cooperative farming and corporate farming are often the most cited.

Cooperatives (associations of persons united voluntarily) have been successful in many countries in empowering farmers to pool in multiple lands together, use collective bargaining to buy agricultural inputs and sell their produce, and collectively undertake value addition to attain greater efficiencies. Their success can be gauged from the fact that cooperatives in Europe have over 40pc market share in agri-food supply chains, whereas, in the USA, around 75pc of the country’s milk is marketed by dairy cooperatives.

Due to the peculiar socio-cultural context of our rural areas, particularly in Punjab and Sindh, people do not exhibit an inclination towards working together for common needs and aspirations. Therefore, cooperatives in the agriculture sector could not reap the desired results. In Pakistan, cooperatives often do not hire professional managers. Therefore, when the majority of members lose interest in managing the organisation due to one reason or another, a small group takes control and manages it for their own gains and interests.

Another widely mentioned option is corporate farming (large-scale agriculture by large companies). The arguments in favour include companies’ greater capacity and financial muscle to introduce mechanisation and new technologies, undertake effective marketing of farm produce, develop linkages with national and international value chain players, and improve farm and area infrastructure. All these factors result in higher productivity and competitiveness.

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