Corporate farming – SIFC’s lead role
In a huge departure from the burning issues making headlines these days, I have picked up a prosaic subject for deliberation with an intent to make the readers navigate through it, knowing fully well that it may not elicit the interest of the majority of readers, and understandably so because most of us have no direct concern with the subject under deliberation. But the subject is of paramount significance when seen through the lenses of Pakistan’s ever-worsening economic health.
The agriculture sector is a critical component of Pakistan’s tottering economy, providing employment to a significant portion of population and contributing substantially to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) as according to the National Food Security (NFS) department, it accounts for around 24 per cent of the total GDP and provides employment to a whopping 42 percent of the total labour force. However, this important sector faces numerous challenges, including water management, outdated farming techniques, lack of modern technology and machinery and above all, dependence on erratic weather patterns engendered by climate change and global warming.
In order to address these issues and enable the agriculture sector contribute towards the country’s economy in a big way, Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) has jumped into the fray to revive this sector and make it a highly profitable entity.
According to latest report released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), Pakistan’s major crops including wheat, rice, sugarcane have tremendous potential to show promising growth if taken care of. However, there is a need to focus on other valuable crops such as tea, soybean and olive plantation too in order to curtail import bill and save billions of dollars being spent on the import of these crucial items.
Corporate Agriculture Farming (CAF) as the title suggests is a venture usually undertaken by large firms/companies interested in the agriculture sector. They purchase or lease barren land and then develop farms to cultivate different variety of crops on a large scale.
Corporate farming, though a new phenomenon in Pakistan’s agricultural history, is an old concept widely practiced in the advanced countries like the US, UK, Canada, EU countries and even in some of the African and Asian countries. Australia and Brazil are known for livestock production and farm management services.
In agricultural parlance, corporate farming is a term used to describe an agricultural venture that uses advanced technology and progressive farming techniques to grow crops and increase the country’s overall agricultural productivity besides development and production of quality livestock and other food-related items like dairy products on an exceptionally large scale. It adopts a scientific approach making it markedly different from the age-old traditional and outdated techniques applied in the family farming.
Pakistan being an agricultural country, has a vast potential which unfortunately, has remained untapped. There is a lot of room for improvement that can be brought in this sector if scientific approach is adopted and modern technology is applied to ramp up agricultural production. In this regard, the project functioning under the oversight of SIFC has starred working to enhance the capacity of agricultural productivity to a level that is well enough not only to meet the ever-growing demand of domestic consumers but could be exported also, thus earning billions of dollars for the country in foreign exchange.
In order to transform this sweet dream into reality, the government has decided to take revolutionary steps capitalizing on the initiative provided by Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a forum that functions under the direct oversight of the army leadership. It’s prime objective is to boost the agricultural sector and make the country self-sufficient in food.
Benefiting from this initiative, corporate farming is being introduced in order to catapult the agricultural production to its maximum capacity to make the country self-sufficient and shed dependence on import of food-related items, thus saving billions of dollars in foreign exchange.
Under the corporate farming, large tract of land is being provided to army-backed private firms/ companies dealing with corporate farming under long-term lease agreement with the understanding that they would bring in capital, machinery, equipment and skilled technical and managerial manpower as well as establish necessary linkages with international markets.
Under the Green Pakistan Initiative (GPI) which is part of SIFC, the government is targeting to increase productivity and transform thousands of acres of barren land into fertile and profitable land. In this connection, SIFC has engaged Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar to make massive investment in key sectors including agriculture, livestock, mining and energy, etc.
It merits a mention here that before embarking upon this ambitious project, a lot of spade work including feasibility study and threadbare cost-benefit analysis has been carried out and the project is all set to get off the ground with full throttle. All kinds of bottlenecks that could impede the project have been removed.
After having considered the pros and cons of this gigantic project, Pakistan army has entered to a lease agreement with the governments of Punjab and Sind who have agreed to hand over 45000 acres and 52000 acres of barren land respectively to an army-backed firm, M/S Green Corporate Initiative, Pvt Ltd., for corporate farming. The land handed over to the army is mostly barren and uncultivated, and the army with the assistance of the relevant stakeholders and its joint venture (JV) partners and locals, will turn this barren land into arable and fertile land that would yield different crops on a massive scale. The project will be run under the oversight of the army and the army will not get any pecuniary benefit out of the project, rather the profit accruing from the farming will go to the locals, the governments of Punjab and Sind and to the firms that will invest in the project.
Under the terms of agreement, 40 per cent of the revenue generated will go to the governments of Punjab and Sind, 20 per cent will be spent on research and development (R&D) in the agriculture sector, while the remaining will be used for the expansion of the project.
According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), almost 27 per cent of even the arable land remains unutilized, let alone barren land spread over thousands of acres. Hence, it’s a clarion call for the government to transform this huge tract of dormant land into a profitable business, and luckily, the government has taken steps to utilize it and transform it into a profitable venture. In order to achieve the objective, the government while using the forum of Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) has finally decided to give a jump start to the agriculture sector with the help of the Pakistan army. It’s projected that with the use of modern agricultural methods, high-tech machinery and high-quality seeds, agricultural production will be increased exponentially.
As planned, in the first phase of the project, different varieties of pulses, millets, rice and sugarcane will be cultivated, and in the second phase, wheat, maize, canola, soybean and olive plantation and other crops will be cultivated on a large scale, thus saving billions of dollars being spent on importing these crucial items.
Although, Pakistan is fundamentally an agro-based economy, yet it has remained the most neglected area throughout. It didn’t figure in the priority list of the successive governments in the past, and the cri de coeur of the hapless farmers has fallen on deaf ears so far and is likely to remain so in the foreseeable future.