Agriculture and the rural economy in Pakistan: Issues, outlooks, and policy priorities: Synopsis


Book Description

While policy makers, media, and the international community focus their attention on Pakistan’s ongoing security challenges, the potential of the rural economy, and particularly the agricultural sector, to improve Pakistanis’ well-being is being neglected. Agriculture is crucial to Pakistan’s economy. Almost half of the country’s labor force works in the agricultural sector, which produces food and inputs for industry (such as cotton for textiles) and accounts for over a third of Pakistan’s total export earnings. Equally important are nonfarm economic activities in rural areas, such as retail sales in small village shops, transportation services, and education and health services in local schools and clinics. Rural nonfarm activities account for between 40 and 57 percent of total rural household income. Their large share of income means that the agricultural sector and the rural nonfarm economy have vital roles to play in promoting growth and reducing poverty in Pakistan.




Developing Sustainable Agriculture in Pakistan


Book Description

Agriculture plays a pivotal role in the economy and development of Pakistan providing food to consumers, raw materials to industries, and a market for industrial goods. Unfortunately, agricultural production is stagnant due to several barriers including a fixed cropping pattern, reliance on a few major crops, a narrow genetic pool, poor seed quality, and a changing climate. In addition, the high cost of production, weak phytosanitary compliance mechanisms, and a lack of cold chain facilities makes Pakistan agriculturally uncompetitive in export markets. Despite all these issues, agriculture is the primary industry in Pakistan and small farmers continue to dominate the business. Small farmers grow crops for subsistence under a fixed cropping pattern and a holistic approach is required to develop agriculture to improve the livelihoods of the rural populace. This book presents an exhaustive look at agriculture in Pakistan. Chapters provide critical analyses of present trends, inadequacies in agriculture, strategic planning, improvement programs and policies while keeping in view the natural resources, plant- and animal-related agricultural production technologies, input supplies, population planning, migration and poverty, and balanced policies on finance, credit, marketing, and trade.




Seed system of Pakistan: Policy challenges and prospects


Book Description

The seed industry in Pakistan has undergone significant developments since the 1950s and has transitioned from ‘Green Revolution’ to ‘Gene Revolution’. The 2015 amendment in the Seed Act, 1976, and the enactment of Plant Breeders’ Rights Act and Rules have provided long awaited intellectual property protection for proprietary seed. Notwithstanding this fundamental change, the challenge of effective enforcement of intellectual property rights remains. This paper presents how the seed industry has evolved over the years through evaluating the regulatory and institutional framework along with looking into the major challenges that still plague the seed system of Pakistan. It also explores how the private sector can be incentivized to invest in the seed sector while protecting the farmers’ rights. Findings reveal that there seems to be a lot of scope for strengthening the seed system of Pakistan via encouraging private sector participation mainly through developing proactive markets with strong institutional mechanism along with scientific and time bound regulatory approval framework. An appraisal of the international best practices divulges that technological backstopping, developing public-private partnerships, building institutional capacity for effective enforcement of regulatory regime and availability of information to farmers for selecting quality seed are equally vital for creating a well-functioning seed system in Pakistan




Water Resources of Pakistan


Book Description

This book presents the first comprehensive assessment of water resources in Pakistan including surface water resources and groundwater resources. It gives a detailed overview of issues and challenges related to water which have not been adequately addressed e.g. water resource vulnerability to climate change, groundwater depletion and contamination, and water governance etc. It includes a collection and compilation of unpublished and scattered data from the archives and repositories of various national institutions and organization. Given the literature dearth, this book will not only be a comprehensive assessment of water resources in Pakistan but can also can as outstanding textbook on water resource management in Pakistan. It will attract a great range of readership including water specialists, researchers, undergraduate and post graduate students and policy makers from Pakistan as well as from overseas.




The devolution revolution: Implications for agricultural service delivery in Ghana


Book Description

In 2009, Ghana began pursuing the devolution of functions and responsibilities from the central government to the country’s 216 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs). Agriculture was among one of the first sectors to be devolved, a process that became effective in 2012. This paper analyzes how this transition has proceeded, with a focus on the implications for agricultural civil servants within the MMDAs, accountability to citizens, and agricultural expenditures. Empirically, the paper draws on a survey of 960 rural households, 80 District Directors of Agriculture (DDAs), district level budget data from 2012 to 2016, and semi-structured interviews with a range of national and local government stakeholders.




Embracing political economy to enhance policy influence: Lessons from PIM research


Book Description

An overarching goal of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) has been to influence policy outcomes in ways that lead to agricultural transformation and economic inclusion. The technical quality of this research is well recognized (CAS Secretariat 2020). Yet, high-quality, rigorous research is not sufficient to achieve policy influence in any domain. Other factors may shape policy uptake — for instance, elections may alter policy priorities, ideological biases may hinder the acceptance of research findings, and vested interest groups may lobby against data-driven or evidence-informed recommendations. A political economy perspective allows for a more holistic and realistic understanding of how policies are determined by governments and which pathways are more viable for achieving development outcomes through policy change.




Accelerating progress towards SDG2 – Policy effectiveness analysis


Book Description

The Food and Nutrition Security Impact, Resilience, Sustainability and Transformation (FIRST) Programme represents a partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Union (EU). In 2018, the partnership agreed on the need to have a policy effectiveness analysis conducted in most of the FIRST countries. As policy implementation rather than formulation is repeatedly raised as one of Pakistan’s challenges, this assessment considered the implementation challenges of specific policy processes relevant to the FAO-EU partnership in the country, rather than the entire suite of relevant policies. It considered the necessary conditions to move forward and how best to meet these conditions, including through more strategic resource allocation and more effective approaches to building institutional capacity.




Transforming Agriculture in South Asia


Book Description

Debates about public expenditure in the agricultural sector have reopened in many developing and emerging economies because of high budget deficits and changes in public opinion. As a result, agricultural policy in many of these countries is beginning to take a more market-oriented approach to agrarian problems, most notably through the introduction of contract farming. This book explores the policy issues around contract farming and its transformative potential and addresses the lack of empirical research on this topic by focusing on South Asia: principally India, Bangladesh and Nepal. The book first addresses the effects of contract farming (vertical coordination) on productivity, food security indicators (yield, consumption expenditures, prices), employment and input usage. Then it draws lessons from the South Asian case studies on the impact of institutional changes, like contract farming, on income and food security of smallholder households. The core of the book includes case study chapters on several commodities that are produced under contract farming, including vegetables and fisheries in Bangladesh, low-value crops in Nepal and coffee in India. Other chapters also explore contracts, storage, input usage and technical efficiency in these cases. This book serves as an essential guide to academics, researchers, students, legislative liaisons and think tank groups interested in agrarian issues, agricultural economics and agricultural policy in emerging economies and particularly in South Asia.




Agricultural development: New perspectives in a changing world


Book Description

Agricultural Development: New Perspectives in a Changing World is the first comprehensive exploration of key emerging issues facing developing-country agriculture today, from rapid urbanization to rural transformation to climate change. In this four-part volume, top experts offer the latest research in the field of agricultural development. Using new lenses to examine today’s biggest challenges, contributors address topics such as nutrition and health, gender and household decision-making, agrifood value chains, natural resource management, and political economy. The book also covers most developing regions, providing a critical global perspective at a time when many pressing challenges extend beyond national borders. Tying all this together, Agricultural Development explores policy options and strategies for developing sustainable agriculture and reducing food insecurity and malnutrition. The changing global landscape combined with new and better data, technologies, and understanding means that agriculture can and must contribute to a wider range of development outcomes than ever before, including reducing poverty, ensuring adequate nutrition, creating strong food value chains, improving environmental sustainability, and promoting gender equity and equality. Agricultural Development: New Perspectives in a Changing World, with its unprecedented breadth and scope, will be an indispensable resource for the next generation of policymakers, researchers, and students dedicated to improving agriculture for global wellbeing.




Food Security in the Developing World


Book Description

FOOD SECURITY IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD An introduction to the urgent global question of how to feed the hungry Global food production has never been more abundant, yet nearly a billion people worldwide suffer from malnutrition, virtually all of them in the developing world. Food security in these countries is a global humanitarian issue which becomes more urgent with every passing year. There is a vital need to understand the nature and causes of food scarcity in developing countries in order to see to it that our global bounty reaches the hungry people who need it. Food Security in the Developing World offers a comprehensive single-volume introduction to the subject. It focuses on three core issues—food availability, food accessibility, and food utilization—in order to produce a rounded picture of the causes and possible solutions for food scarcity. Thorough and accessible, it promises to help researchers and policymakers address this growing humanitarian crisis in a reasoned and targeted way. Food Security in the Developing World readers will also find: Future-oriented approach which continuously highlights paths forward Detailed discussion of topics including climate change and agricultural productivity, price volatility, diet and nutrition, and many more Examples and case studies drawn from across the developing world, including Sudan, Uganda, Nepal, and Afghanistan Food Security in the Developing World is ideal for food scientists and technologists, students in programs related to food science, development studies, geography, and related subjects, and policymakers working in food production and distribution.