FAISALABAD: The Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) on Wednesday said agriculture constituted the backbone of Pakistan’s economy, yet it continued to be treated as an afterthought in policy and practice.
Welcoming the expansion of bank financing to the sector, the PTEA Patron-in-Chief Khurram Mukhtar cautioned that credit alone could not drive transformation.
“Money without productivity is a subsidy, not a solution,” he said. He stressed that Pakistan urgently needed a concrete action to improve productivity and yield, conserve water, ensure supply of certified seed, and expand the use of mobile soil labs and satellite support.
“The country must also move toward mechanised and corporate farming, ensure competitive agricultural inputs, and invest in capacity-building for small farmers. Fruits and vegetables should be prioritised as a key crop segment, while the role of the middleman must be eliminated through stronger farm-to-market linkages and logistics support,” he emphasised.
Most importantly, Mukhtar said, Pakistan must focus on value addition and integration with finished products. “We must stop exporting raw and importing processed. This cannot be done in fragments or fiscal years. Agriculture must be declared a national emergency and backed by a 10-year national agriculture plan, with the federal government and provinces working as one. Feed the farmer, and the farmer feeds the nation,” he added.
