Strategy evolved to modernize agricultural sector to achieve higher growth – Breaking News – The Nation

ISLAMABAD – The government has drawn up a comprehensive agricultural modernization plan to improve the productivity of agriculture along modern lines and help promote the country’s overall economic growth.
The National Action Plan places particular emphasis on capacity building, germplasm resources, agro-processing, agricultural technology extension, fisheries science and technology, aquaculture and fish processing. aquatic products, official sources said. The action plan also includes the establishment of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) free zones, agricultural market and trade information, and cooperation for agricultural development.
According to an official document, other initiatives proposed for the 2022-23 fiscal year in the agricultural sector include commercial agriculture, deceleration of FMD free zones and local production of FMD vaccines and mechanization of processes. harvest and post-harvest. The agricultural sector, the backbone of the country’s economy, is expected to grow by 3.9% in the next fiscal year (2022-23). It is pertinent to mention here that in the current fiscal year, the agricultural sector exceeded its envisaged targets of the Annual Plan 2021-22 (3.5%) given the strong performance of the crop sector. The agricultural sector recorded a growth of 4.4% against a growth of 3.5% last year. Production of important crops, including sugar cane, rice and corn, reached record production with an impressive increase in yield per acre.
Although cotton production remained below target in 2021-22, it was still 17.9% higher than last year’s crop production. Given the almost 7% reduction in cultivated area, the performance of cotton cultivation is also impressive. However, wheat yield was affected by urea availability and irrigation water supply disruptions, increased rust prevalence and high temperatures during the last half of March. (heat wave), according to the document. Meanwhile, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had set an indicative annual agricultural credit disbursement target of Rs. Last year. 1,366 billion. During the period July-March 2021-22, agricultural credit of Rs. 958 billion was disbursed, which is slightly higher than the disbursements in the comparable period of last year. On the other hand, private investment in the agricultural sector of agriculture recorded a high double-digit growth of 25.6%, representing nearly 26% real growth in the agricultural sector attracted last year. Public sector investment increased slightly, while the share of private sector investment in GDP remained stationary at a level of 10%, the document added.