LAHORE  -  Muhammad Aurangzeb, Federal Minister for Finance, has said that Pakistan’s current economic outlook can help our private and financial sectors to change the face of agriculture in the county.

He was speaking at the concluding session of Pakistan Agricultural Coalition’s conference ‘Agri Connections 2024’ at the Expo Center, Lahore on Thursday. “Robust growth in the agriculture sector, declining inflation rates, strong value of the rupee, strong remittance inflows, rising forex reserves, and a buoyant stock market are stable macroeconomic indicators underscoring the country’s improved economic outlook,” said the finance minister. He added that we are expecting to receive a tranche of $1bn from the IMF while the bumper rice crop brought us a comparable amount of dollars this year. The Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) is designed for investment promotion in the field of agriculture. “We want to facilitate farm machinery service providers and we need a major scale up of modern agri warehousing under the EWRs financing that allows agri commodities to be traded nationally and internationally,” said the federal minister. Meanwhile, Ahsan Rana, Associate Professor, LUMS, said that the country’s overly regulated seed system is not good for our agriculture sector’s growth. “Cumbersome procedures have made our seed system depend on govt, making Pakistan stay in lowest ranks in this domain according to World Bank,” said Ahsan. He said that compliance should be voluntary, enforcement should be limited to few aberrations, two-tier system for seed companies should be developed, and regulator should become a facilitator. Maria Saleem, GM Agri-Business, Fatima Group, said that per acre yield enhancement in wheat can trigger additional $18b by freeing up 5m acres on which cotton is cultivated. She added that Pakistan can earn $1.6b by planting Canola/raya on 5m acres saved for wheat area as Pakistan imports 4m tons edible oil worth $4b annually.

“We need to invest in R&D for specialty crops. Corporate farming can serve well for the country. Hybrid wheat seeds can produce 34 million tons of wheat for the country,” said Maria.

Hasan Raza of Neelum Seeds said that investment in seed and modern technology is need of the time because public sector has limited resources and globally private sector leads the seed sectors.

“Liberal seed policy is the need of the hour. In the United States there is no requirement for seed registration as market mechanism decides the winners,” said Hasan.

Nabeel Chaudhry, CEO Thai Union, said that Punjab government has few million acres of Brackish land which is good for shrimp farming.

“We can earn $2 billion by exporting shrimps if we use one lac acres of this Brackish land for shrimp farming,” said Nabeel, adding that India is earning more than $6 billion through shrimp exports.

PAC Co-founder and Strategy Advisor Kazim Saeed summed up the conference by saying that we have heard new, financially sound arguments at this conference from the business community for investing in agriculture.

In the end, Chairman PAC Hadi Ali Rizvi thanked all the sponsors and exhibitors who showcased future of corporate and innovative farming in Pakistan, state-of-the-art technologies, equipment, and solutions that are driving the future of agriculture.

“I must also acknowledge the contributions of the progressive farmers and students who have shared their projects and research findings with us. Your dedication to innovation and sustainability is commendable, and your presentations have served as a source of inspiration for all of us who are committed to the advancement of agriculture,” said Hadi.

He also thanked the organizing committee of PAC, event managers Osiris, volunteers, and sponsors to make this conference a reality and a tremendous success.

“I hope that connections forged and insights gained during this conference will continue to inspire progress and innovation in the agricultural sector,” said Hadi.