ISLAMABAD-Pakistan Hi-Tech Hybrid Seed Association (PHHSA) Chairman Shahzad Ali Malik Sunday said growth in the agriculture sector is two to four times more effective in raising incomes among the poorest compared to other sectors.
Talking to a delegation of progressive farmers led by Shoukat Ali Arain from Mamukanjan, district Toba Tek Singh, he said agriculture is considered as the backbone of the economy as it forms the basis for food and nutrition security and provides raw materials for industrialisation.
He said agriculture is also crucial to economic growth, accounting for 4 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) and in some least developing countries, it can account for more than 25 percent. He said agriculture can help reduce poverty, raise incomes and improve food security for 80 percent of the world’s poor, who live in rural areas and work mainly in farming.
He said value addition to the agricultural produce implies that more income is generated from agriculture which contributes to lower levels of poverty in rural areas. He said lower poverty rates in rural territories are also associated with more production and income diversification and with more market-oriented economies. He said Pakistan’s agriculture sector plays a central role in the economy as it contributes 18.9 percent to GDP and absorbs 42.3 percent of labour force. It is also an important source of foreign exchange earnings and stimulates growth in other sectors. He said in view of global impending hovering threats of food insecurity, the government must strengthen the agriculture sector on modern scientific lines for bumper production to meet ever-increasing demands of population exploitation grappling the country unchecked.
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Shahzad Ali Malik recipient of the civil award Sitara-i-Imtiaz for evolving the first-ever hybrid rice seed in Pakistan, said cash crops cotton and rice be given preference after staple food with full enforcement of use of only hi-tech hybrid seed in rice cultivation across the country for obtaining best yield per acre compared to noncertified seeds. He called upon the government to ban all non-certified qualities of seeds throughout the country and educate the growers and farmers about the benefits of the use of quality seeds which will not only improve their production but also enhance profitability astronomically.