During the last two decades the world has faced several changes in the global economy. The Uruguay Round defined a new agreement for international trade and set up the World Trade Organization (WTO). In the age of globalization, the WTO makes claims for international liberalism in place of the previous national protectionism. Therefore countries are not autonomous anymore with regard to designing their national policies. So planning of the national economy is subject to the international rules applied by the WTO
During the last two decades the world has faced several changes in the global economy. The Uruguay Round defined a new agreement for international trade and set up the World Trade Organization (WTO). In the age of globalization, the WTO makes claims for international liberalism in place of the previous national protectionism. Therefore countries are not autonomous anymore with regard to designing their national policies. So planning of the national economy is subject to the international rules applied by the WTO. Consequently, even in remote areas world market influences people’s lives. It means that commodity prices in remote villages are strongly affected by business development on the Tokyo or New York stock markets. According to this scenario one can say that the local agenda is now completely dependent on the global trends.
Over the last 10 years, the global production and trade in agriculture has been expanding rapidly. Although many factors may be used to explain the rapid expansion of the agriculture production and export sub-sector but much of it is attributable to the unfolding market opportunities globally. Especially it is true for the developed countries of Europe and North America.
Diversified agricultural production systems are being developed as potential economic and environmental strategies. There is an emphasis on sustaining the value added contributions of fruits, vegetables and livestock production to the region while addressing community and environmental concerns in China and India. Development and dissemination of technologies that exploit market led opportunities for agricultural growth in crops, horticulture, livestock and agro-processing/value addition in ways that alleviate poverty and support environmentally sustainable development is the clarion of time under the changing scenario of world as global village.
Agriculture in Pakistan continues to occupy a pivotal position in development strategy although government intervention is largely restricted to measures that promote the development of the private sector. What policy has failed to achieve is a transformation of the agricultural sector. It is now an accepted tenet of government policy that centralized planning is a barrier to the more complex tasks of agricultural diversification, agro-industrial development and export led growth. It becomes inevitable for the policy makers of government of Pakistan to rethink about the agricultural policies. Because the agriculture is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy whereas, a big chunk of the annual budget is allocated for the defense purposes and a very meager share is allocated to agriculture. To develop a sustainable agriculture sector in the competitive world, along with handsome allocation in budget modern concepts of diversified agriculture should also be introduced in the main frame of the agriculture policies.
Diversification and Intensification in Agriculture sector should be of prime importance in Agricultural Support Project (ASP). It should be based on supporting a farming system approach (FSA) with major emphasis on natural resource management, employment generation, demand based production, value addition and marketing, following participatory management processes through community participation. The envisaged outcome of the diversified agriculture of Pakistan in the competitive world would be as (i) Promotion and processing of selected high value commodities in respective potential agro ecological areas (ii) Mobilization of private sector including NGOs, to strengthen the delivery of direct agricultural services in terms of input supplies and value addition (iii) Strengthening of rural infrastructure in terms of rural credit, roads and markets (iv) Improvement of the public sector technology generation and dissemination systems (v) Development of new viable and farmer friendly technologies leading to sustainable agricultural development.
Key Reference :
Muhammad Azher Nawaz, Dr. Muhammad Ashraf and Dr. Naeem Akhtar
University College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan.
