Ans: Problems Faced by Agriculture Sector:
Our economy depends largely on agriculture sector. Large percentage of our
population, which depends directly on agriculture, suffers from poverty due
to unemployment or semi-employment. In comparison to developed
countries, our agricultural produce is very low. Given below is a brief survey
of the problems our agriculture sector is faced with:
1. Water logging and Salinity:
Underground water level rises and comes very close to the surface of the
earth; this condition is called water-logging. Underground salts dissolve in
this water and come to the surface of the Earth. Water evaporates due to
heat of the sun and leaves these salts on the surface. These salts make a
crust on earth surface, this condition is called salinity. Water logging and
salinity destroy the fertility of land and make cultivation impossible. Our
governments have made substantial efforts to fight water logging and
salinity. Despite all the efforts being made by our government, millions of
acres of land has been spoiled by water logging and salinity. Thousands of
acres are still being destroyed, on yearly basis, in the provinces of the
Punjab and Sindh.
2. Lack of Water Storage for Irrigation:
Cultivation in our barani areas and the level of water in our rivers depends
totally on precipitation (falling of rain and snow). We receive excessive
rainfall in the months of July and August, in other months rainfall is
insufficient Southern areas receive less rainfall as compared to northern
areas. We are in need of dams for the storage of water in rainy season.
Dams, we already have, do not meet our storage requirements. Their
storage capacity has gradually decreased due to silt deposits. Construction
of new dams and better water management can helps resolve our water
shortage problem.
3. Floods and Land Erosion:
Floods are very common in Pakistan, almost every year, crops are destroyed
by floods. Flood water wipes off the upper layer of the soil which contains
humus; this reduces the fertility of the soil. Another factor is erosion.
According to an estimate we have already lost almost one million acres of
valuable land due to erosion.
4. Under-Utilization of Cultivable Land:
According to an estimate, Pakistan has 80 million hectares of cultivable land,
only 20 million hectares out of this land is under cultivation. It means that a
larger portion (75 percent) of our cultivable land has so far not been utilized:
In addition to that, due to poor agricultural techniques we are not taking full
advantage of the land we are cultivating.
5. Urbanization
Due to fast population growth, agricultural land in the vicinity of cales to being
humed into housing colonica Faal apeed of banization is ealing up
fertile cultivable land gradually
6. Insufficient Transportation Facilities
An efficient infrastructure of fanm to market transport plays a vital role in the
progress of an agitculture system This makes timely Supply of aced and
fertilizer to the farmers and transportation of saleable agricultural goods to
the market, possible We do not have a good network of farm to mak
roads. This is a great hindrance in the way of our progress in the field
agriculture
7. Farm Knowledge illiteracy
Modem agriculture is not possible without the knowledge of advanced
agicultural techniques Moal of our farmers are iterate, therefore, they are
unable to use modem techniques and gel maximum output from the land
8. Poverty;
Majority of farmers is extant and buy quality seeds, a position to apply
modem agricultural implements and buy our culturizers, peatees
and insecticides. This deficiency makes our agriculture less profitable and
less productive.
9. Uneconomical Land Holdings:
Most of our farmers have very small land holdings. Their incomes are hardly
aufficient to meal their basic needs; they live hand to mouth and cannot
spare money to invest on mechanical cultivation
1o.Lack of Agriculture Research;
We have a poor research base in the field of agriculture. Modern scientific
research is essential for the development of more productive agriculture. We
should follow the developed countries and encourage our agricultural
scientists to produce new knowledge in their respective fields.