Muhammad Ali
Pakistan’s agriculture contributes a major chunk to its economy of 25% of its total GDP and labour force is contributing development their services to country’s economic progress. The most significant crops account for more than 75% of the value of total agricultural output. Participation of PM Nawaz in Beijing as his top priority on his agenda is to materialize the long term plan CPEC and it calls for building the infrastructure and a supporting policy scenario to facilitate new CPEC entries.
The main thrust of the plan actually lies in agriculture, antipodal to the image of CPEC as a massive industrial and transport network undertaking involved power plants and highways. Thousands of acres of agricultural land will be leased out to Chinese companies to set up “demonstration projects” in areas ranging from seed range to irrigation technology. The plan attains its greatest specificity and lays out the largest number of projects and plans for their assistance in agriculture. From the provision of seeds like fertilizer, credit and pesticides, Chinese companies will also operate their own farms, processing facilities for fruits and vegetables and grain. It identifies opportunities for entry by Chinese companies in the many dysfunctions that cause problems in Pakistan’s agriculture sector. For instance, due to lack of poor logistics and processing facilities, 50% of agricultural products go bad during harvesting and shipping.
Companies entering agriculture will be offered the extraordinary level of support from the Chinese government. The plan also offers to sustain a mechanism that will help Chinese agricultural companies to contact the senior representatives of the Government of Pakistan and China”. They are influenced to “make the most of the free capital and loans” from various ministries of the Chinese government as well as the China Development Bank. The plan also offers to maintain a mechanism that will help Chinese agricultural companies to contact the senior representatives of the Government of Pakistan and China.
The plan proposes to control the work of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps to bring automation as well as scientific technique in livestock breeding, development of hybrid range and precision irrigation to Pakistan. It sees its main opportunity as helping the Kashgar region, a territory within the larger Xinjiang Autonomous Zone, which suffers from a poverty incidence of 50 percent, and large distances that make it difficult to connect to larger markets in order to promote development. The region’s total output in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery amounted to just over $5 billion in 2012, and its population was less than 4 million in 2010, hardly a market with windfall gains for Pakistan.
The plan makes some reference to export agriculture goods from the ports, but the bulk of its emphasis is focused on the opportunities for the Kashgar region and Xinjiang Production Corps, along with the opportunities for revenue generation in the local market. Many areas have been identified along with seventeen specific projects which include construction of NPK (Nitrogen, Potassium, phosphorus) fertilizer plant with an annual yield of 800,000 tons. Companies will be established to lease farm implements, like tractors, efficient plant protection machinery, efficient energy saving pump equipment, precision fertilization, drip irrigation equipment and planting and harvesting machinery. In crops, demonstration projects of more than 6,500 acres will be set up for high yield seeds and irrigation. In transport and storage, the plan aims to build a countrywide logistics network and enlarge the storage areas and distribution network between major cities of Pakistan with a focus on grains, vegetables and fruits. The bilateral cooperation between both the countries will enhance their ties and boost the share of agriculture in economic uplifting and utilizes the manpower in the progress of the country.
