ISLAMABAD:
Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain on Thursday blamed post-devolution coordination failures between the federation and the provinces for exacerbating problems in the wheat sector.
He told a Senate committee that provincial governments were not cooperating on procurement targets despite mounting challenges facing Pakistan’s agricultural economy.
The remarks came during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research, chaired by Senator Syed Masroor Ahsan, where lawmakers discussed declining agricultural productivity, weak wheat procurement, climate-related losses and the growing disconnect between Pakistan’s agricultural potential and actual production.
“Provinces are not cooperating in the agriculture sector; problems have increased after devolution,” Rana Tanveer told the committee, adding that consensus could not be reached with the provinces on wheat procurement targets.
He said the Sindh government had announced plans to procure only 100,000 tonnes of wheat, while wider coordination between federal and provincial authorities remained weak.
According to Rana Tanveer, Pakistan currently spends only 0.02 percent of its GDP on agricultural research, compared to India’s 0.4 percent, while agricultural productivity in Pakistan remained significantly lower than in India and China.
Meanwhile, Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar dismissed claims of a four million tonne wheat shortage in the country and informed the Senate that sufficient wheat stocks were available to meet domestic needs.
Responding to a point of order made by Senator Aon Abbas, the minister challenged the opposition to produce documentary evidence to support the allegation of a major shortage of wheat.
