Like other countries of the world, Pakistan also observed World Food Day last week. But a recent UN report presents a very grim picture of Pakistan’s agriculture sector.
According to the report, 48 countries are the worst affected from food shortage these days and Pakistan was ranked 16. Agriculture is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy but in the last three years, the performance of this sector has declined sharply which has added to the woes of already beleaguered economy.
It seems that like other fields of life agriculture sector is also passing through its worst phase and a big section of the population that is attached with agriculture finds it hard to cope with the existing conditions.
It is a pity that in a country, whose 70 percent of the population is engaged in agricultural sector with the world’s largest irrigation system and fertile land, is facing this kind of disaster. Although the government has blamed recent floods and bad security situations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for the worst performance of the agriculture sector but people believe that several other factors are responsible for this. Rising fuel and fertilizer prices, energy crises, lack of water and lack of interest on part of the government are the main reasons for such plight. — Khawaja Umer Farooq, Jeddah