Pakistan possesses over 19 million hectares of irrigated area, which is about eight percent of the total irrigated area of the world. Punjab alone has 14 million hectares of irrigated area, some six percent of the world's irrigated area. Imagine a country that is only 2.5 percent population of the world but blessed with 8 percent of its total irrigated area. Despite that monumental fact, we have to import millions of tons of wheat to feed our population of a mere 165 million. About 40 percent of the world's food comes from irrigated 16 percent of the total cultivated land of the globe. Punjab's irrigated area of 14 million hectares i.e., 74 percent of Pakistan is larger than Africa or North America which each have 12 millions hectares of irrigated area. All the above statistics indicate that we have a sick agriculture that requires a second green revolution like the one we had in the 1960s, to be able to feed not just our people but the world at large. The moribund agriculture of this country needs a be kick-started and who can do that better than our dynamic Chief Minister of Punjab Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif. Instead of feeding the world, we are importing millions of ton of wheat with our scarce resources. We lack sufficient water for our crops while we lose 38 MAF of water to the sea each year due to failure to build mega dams for water storage. We also lack in improved cultural practices that entail use of HYV crop seeds and right mix of fertilizers. We urgently need a high-powered Food and Agriculture Commission to enquire into our dismal performance in agriculture. -DR M. YAQOOB BHATTI, Lahore, August 8.