KARACHI: A report released by Pakistan Business Council (PBC) revealed Pakistan’s crop yield per hectare hasn’t registered any improvements and alarmingly sunk to the lowest levels globally.
PBC’s report highlighted low productivity will remain a major impediment to Pakistan’s ambition of being a major player in the global processed food industry, reported Express Tribune.
Agriculture constituted a 19.5 percent share in gross domestic product (GDP) of the country’s economy during 2016. The report observed agriculture sector employed over 42 percent of labour force, and its blooming would help improve living conditions of a large amount of people and increase competitiveness of the industry, overall.
PBC’s report revealed over 50 percent of agricultural products end up being wasted in Pakistan because of lack of logistics, processing and cold chain facilities.
Gada Hussain, founder of Sindh Abadgar Board said lack of efficiency, water supply problems, lack of new seed varieties were killing Pakistan’s agriculture sector.
Also, urbanization is also increasing due to lack of health care, basic facilities, education and safe drinking water which is forcing farmers to migrate there.
According to several sections of the media, the Chinese are gearing up to enter Pakistan’s agriculture sector as its banks could push for investments by providing loans to its companies in setting up ventures in Pakistan.
The Chinese are also establishing a fertilizer plant which will produce 800,000 tons per year of the commodity. They are also planning on setting up meat processing plants in Sukkur expected to have a yearly output of 200,000 tons.
And they will also be setting up two milk plants expected to produce 200,000 tons an annum of milk.
