ISLAMABAD:
Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain on Thursday blamed failures in post-devolution coordination between the federation and provinces for the worsening problems in the wheat sector.
He told a Senate committee that provincial governments were not cooperating on procurement targets despite growing challenges facing Pakistan’s agricultural economy.
The remarks were made 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, low wheat procurement, climate-related losses and the growing gap between Pakistan’s agricultural potential and actual production.
“Provinces are not cooperating in the agriculture sector; problems have worsened after decentralization,” Rana Tanveer told the committee, adding that consensus could not be reached with provinces on wheat procurement targets.
He said the Sindh government had announced plans to purchase only 100,000 tonnes of wheat, while broader 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 0.4 percent in India, while agricultural productivity in Pakistan remains significantly lower than that of India and China.
Meanwhile, Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar rejected claims of a deficit of four million tonnes of wheat in the country and informed the Senate that sufficient wheat stocks were available to meet the national requirements.
Responding to a point of order raised by Senator Aon Abbas, the minister challenged the opposition to present documented evidence supporting the allegation of a major wheat shortage.
