Fixing agriculture

PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s renewed push to strengthen agricultural research, provide quality seeds to smallholders and medium-scale farmers, and improve crop estimate systems could help address some of the sector’s long-standing weaknesses in farm productivity.

But good intentions alone are not enough. The real question is whether the government can turn his directives into a coherent policy and implement it effectively. That would require reforming federal and provincial agriculture policies, markets and institutions that determine what farmers produce, what they pay for inputs and what they earn. Above all, an agricultural policy must be responsive to the needs of small and medium-sized farmers rather than powerful lobbies.

Take the example of the sugar sector. Policy has repeatedly been designed around the interests of millers, who have traditionally enjoyed political influence. Decisions on support prices, cane procurement, export, and other interventions aim to protect them. Cotton illustrates another failure of the agricultural system. Farmers often do not receive a fair share of the value generated by their crop, with middlemen and other parts of the supply chain capturing much of the margin. The result is reduced yields over the years.

Improving farm productivity means little if farmers remain trapped in inefficient markets and weak bargaining arrangements. A serious agricultural reform programme must address these structural problems. Smallholders need easier and cheaper access to bank credit, fairly priced and reliable inputs, protection against adulterated pesticides and poor-quality fertiliser and certified, high-yielding and climate-resilient seeds.

They also need better extension services that take modern farming techniques from research institutions to the field. Market reform is as important. Farmers should have greater direct access to efficient markets and buyers, instead of remaining dependent on middlemen. Better storage, grading, transport, digital market information and transparent price mechanisms can help reduce the gap between what consumers pay and what farmers receive. The proposed national system for estimating crop production is overdue. Reliable data is essential for planning imports, exports, storage and prices. But such a system will be useful only if its estimates are credible and produced through modern technology.

The question, therefore, is not whether the PM’s intentions are honest. They are. The question is whether his government has what it takes to confront the entrenched interests that benefit from the system. Agricultural modernisation requires a comprehensive plan covering research, seeds, credit, inputs, extension, markets, water management and value chains, with the smallholder at its centre. It also requires political will to reform policies that currently favour powerful groups. Without these, no intervention will deliver the productive gains that farmers and the economy urgently need.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2026