Either there are no buyers in the market, or God has bestowed upon us his bounties that still we hold stock of wheat from previous years. This year again, there is a bumper harvest, where will it go? Not only the wheat stocks but also bulk of cotton and heaps of rice are in godowns. We have to find out reasons as to why we could not off load our stocks despite concessions like low tariffs, binding for every country to import some of the agricultural products for domestic consumption from other countries under the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) and an edge of being a preferential and differential country status, acknowledging our role in the war against terrorism. High cost of production has been identified as the main reason for less export of agriculture stocks. Higher the cost of production the lower will be the demand in either national or international markets. The higher cost of production makes goods non-competitive in terms of both the price and the quality in the market and hence forces decline in export targets. Another reason, which makes Pakistani agriculture produce non-competitive, is the subsidies provided by the developed world to their farmers.

Though the green revolution of 1960s almost doubled our agriculture production, luring farmers to sow hybrid seeds, use chemical fertilizers and pesticides that increased the cost of inputs. The use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid seed later proved to be harmful to both farmers and the consumers of the agricultural products. These inputs damaged the environment and under burdened the economies of small farmers. The green revolution literally made farming communities non-competitive even at local market level. Health hazards, linked to use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, have now proved beyond doubt. The environmentalists oppose use of such hazardous inputs rather the pro-environment agricultural experts are now professing organic/traditional farming.

If we go by the supporters of the green revolution, we would be right to ask from them as for whom they want to grow more with hybrid seeds using toxic chemical fertilizers and pesticide otherwise hazardous for human beings when the growers and consumers would not be the beneficiaries rather sufferers of high production cost, the prices of commodities and health hazards linked to these produces.

Now people are talking of one step ahead of green revolution. There is a new concept of Integrated Resource Management, which is generally termed as Blue Revolution. And for us, since the last one-decade, we have reached a point where increased inputs have a little impact on production, that is almost stagnant now. According to law of diminishing returns become effective, when increase in inputs instead of increase in returns, results in decrease in output. When we look into the theory of returns to scale, its one aspect is ‘constant returns’ to scale, which denotes a case where a change in all inputs leads to a proportional change in output. The other is ‘increasing returns to scale’ that arises when an increase in all inputs leads to a more than proportional increase in the level of output. And the last is ‘decreasing returns to scale’ that occurs when a balanced increase of all inputs leads to a less than proportional increase in total output. The last one seems more likely happening in our case.

Most of our farmers have small land holdings, they are not able to bear such huge expenses on inputs, and generally expenditure on inputs are much more than what they got in return. So it’s high time for us to search out some alternates, the best alternate, so for is the organic farming. One can find out hundred of success stories, in EU, USA, Germany and in many other developed countries, where organic farming has gained roots. Even in our case, there are many people practising organic farming, even in irrigated areas. This writer visited a farm at Shireen Maafi, District Okara, where every thing is produced organically. Owner of the farm has established a plant for preparing organic fertilizer from dung. And in his opinion, biogas obtained during the process is a by-product, while slurry obtained from the dung is actual product. There is a high demand of organic produce all over the world, and it fetches a good price, almost two times greater than ordinary produce.

God has gifted us with variable ecosystems. Without taking much trouble, we can introduce organic agriculture in Barani areas, where soils have no taste of chemicals. In these areas people still grow traditional seeds. The only thing needed is government support. If government is ready to offer its expertise, research facilities, extension services and makes a policy indent for promotion of traditional agriculture, then there is no reason that Barani areas remain behind irrigated agriculture. These measures are even allowed in agreement on agriculture under green box. The only thing required, is the same zeal and vigor with which idea of green revolution was materialized. As many as,1.4 million hectares of Barani land can be much more productive and we can earn much needed foreign exchange almost if not equal half to that earned from mechanized agriculture. Then there is no need to explore new markets for our produce, as there is an ever-increasing demand for organic produce. The Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) last year marketed 25 tons of organic apricots from Northern Areas against the demand of 400 tons from abroad. This year, their target for export of organic apricots is 60 tons and they are also aspiring to get certified their produce as organic stuff.

The other factor that undermines market access is mandatory standards. Every product, offered in market is supposed to observe standards set by standard setting bodies. For food items, standards are determined by FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission, while for items falling within animal origin standards are maintained by Office International Epizootics and standards for plant health are set by International Plant Protection Convention in consultation with regional organizations working under the umbrella of FAO. If we talk about standards of our products, we find that let alone USA and European Union, even Sri Lanka refused to buy onion from Pakistan on account of high residual content. The other potential threat in future, that can limit our access to the foreign markets, still not part of multilateral trade agreements, but will be very much there after next WTO ministerial meeting, is the link between trade and environment. It is not only mandatory for Pakistan but for the entire developing world to decide to take a U-turn, a complete shift from corporate agriculture to traditional agriculture, practiced since centuries, which is panacea to all present day ills. This change will not only ensure greater market access but will also serve the cause of environmental conservation. And above all, it is totally in compliance with standards maintained internationally.