Knowledge and Agriculture

Education, the cornerstone of a knowledge economy, is given a low priority in developing countries. This is because of the vested interests of powerful but corrupt parliamentarians who find it in their interests to keep the masses subjugated and enslaved. Education brings understanding and awareness, and frees the minds to question those in power. Distorted forms of democracy in which there is no accountability of the rulers have been set up in many developing countries. Such democracies only serve a few corrupt leaders who loot and plunder at will.
The attempt in 2010 to destroy the Higher Education Commission (HEC) was the brainchild of some politicians with forged degrees who felt threatened by a high quality, merit-based organisation operating like an oasis in a sea of corruption. It was saved by the intervention of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on an appeal (filed by the Atta-ur-Rahman, Ms Marvi Memon and Azam Swati) that gave a judgment that the attempt to shred the HEC was unconstitutional. Now, however, some evil minds are plotting the death of the HEC again.
With their eyes on the Rs44 billion annual grant of higher education, some “honourable” parliamentarians have recently moved a bill in parliament that will take away the control of the funds from the HEC and give it to a federal ministry. At present the funds are controlled by a 17-member commission that includes the provincial secretaries of education, eminent educationists and respected citizens. India, by contrast, has decided to close down its University Grants Commission and establish an organisation similar to the HEC. The Indian cabinet approved the establishment of the National Commission on Higher Education and Research (NCHR) in December 2011.

HIt is time for the political parties in Pakistan to unite, rise up once again and kill the vile attempt by the corrupt to take control of the Rs44 billion annually made available to the HEC for the operational and development needs of the universities in Pakistan.
By the year 2000 the gap between rich and poor countries had reached 500:1 (World Bank) and it continues to increase with every passing day. While some countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and, more recently, China have managed to narrow this gap between the rich and the poor, most other developing countries, including Pakistan, are lagging far behind. Knowledge and technological innovations are identified as two essential capabilities for bridging this gap. Since no country has all the resources to achieve technological competence in all fields, most countries have concentrated on finding one or two areas of specialisation for comparative advantage. For Pakistan, this advantage at present, according to our study, lies in the agriculture sector.
The agriculture sector in Pakistan supports two-thirds of the rural population and remains the largest income and employment generating sector of the economy but accounts for only 22 percent of the total gross domestic product. Pakistan has not been able to exploit its immense agriculture potential due to under- investment in human resource development and agriculture research. According to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIR), public expenditure for agriculture research in Pakistan as a percentage of agricultural GDP is only 0.29 percent, whereas India and Bangladesh spend 0.36 percent and Mexico and Kenya spend 1.21 percent and 1.30 percent, respectively.
The 15-year agriculture reform and development vision for Pakistan was prepared under the supervision of one of us (Dr Atta-ur-Rahman). It involved research scientists, industrialists, farmers association and economists and identified critical skills, technology, management and public policy gaps in all fields of agriculture including major grain crops, horticulture, fisheries, animal husbandry, rangelands and forestry. Research areas, technological inputs and better operational practices needed in soil, seed, fertilisers, pesticides and water management as well as the transport, grain storage and cold chain infrastructure required for prevention of 40-45 percent of post harvest losses have been identified.
It was observed that 75 percent of Pakistan’s agriculture potential remains untapped. Crop yields on average are lower by 31-75 percent of the productivity level achieved at local research stations and lower by 50 percent to 83 percent in developed countries. These productivity gaps can be addressed through increased inputs in human resource development, research, technology and extension services and through improved management of resources and inputs. Improved access to institutional credit and access to local and international markets are essential prerequisites. Pakistan has all the basic ingredients to excel and eventually lead in agricultural innovation at regional level.
Most of the agriculture research organisations. however, are poorly managed and remain ill-equipped with modern machinery, library and information infrastructure and qualified staff. There are no incentives for scientists to innovate and there are weak linkages between stakeholders (i.e., researcher, farmers, entrepreneurs and policymakers) due to a weak extension services system. In order to carry out reforms of the system and to increase agriculture productivity an investment of Rs1078 billion will be required over a period of 15 years. This investment is expected to generate Rs2,368 billion as net benefits with an internal rate of return close to 108 percent (PIDE 2003).
At their initial stages of development most developed countries invested in agriculture innovations to eliminate rural poverty and to bridge the income inequality gap between rural and urban populations in their societies. China’s agriculture reform programme has not only lifted millions out of poverty but generated enough income for investment in industrial innovations. The successful programme, which began in the early 1980s, is premised on providing flexible, demand-driven packages of services, not just technology but also information, technical assistance, marketing and developing supply networks and supply chains.
In 1986, the Chinese ministry of science and technology initiated the nationwide “Spark” Programme (derived from the Chinese proverb “A single spark can start a prairie fire,” meaning that the spark of science and technology will spread over vast rural areas of China). Its overall objectives were to help transfer managerial and technological knowledge from more advanced sectors to rural enterprises and to help increase productivity and employment.
We need to learn how countries such as China, Egypt and India have modernised agriculture and are using it to tackle poverty and transition to a knowledge economy. Simultaneously we must resist continuing attempts by crooked minds to destroy the HEC.
Acknowledgement: We are grateful to Bilal Mirza, PhD Fellow, United Nations University-MERIT, the Netherlands, for his valuable input
Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman is former federal minister for science an technology and former chairman of the Higher Education Commission
Dr S T K Naim is an expert on STI policy and a consultant at COMSTECH, Islamabad.
Courtesy: The NEWS

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Challenges to Biotechnology in Pakistan

By  Sayyar Khan Kazi

We are living in an age, where almost all aspects of human life have been revolutionized by the highly sophisticated and advanced technologies.  In recent years, we have witnessed on print and electronic media, several scientific endeavors to target innovations and discoveries beyond the boundaries of our planet Earth. Technologically advanced countries such as the USA, European Union, Japan and emerging powers like China and India are beating one another to have speedy access to the mysteries of other planets.

In the quest of unraveling scientific mysteries, several missions from these countries have been launched to Moon, Mars and other planets in order to lead and dictate the terms upon which the human future will rely. Overall, there has been unpreced- ented progress towards industrialization that revolutionized every aspect of human life including medical and health care, aviation, urbanization, infrastructure and agriculture. 

This off course presents a bright picture of the evolution of human civilizations as a result of thousands years of transformation from living in an age of stone to highly civilized societies equipped with social and scientific tools to govern this planet Earth.

Like other scientific disciplines, Agriculture science has received much importance due to the growing needs of expanding populations for more food, feed, fiber and alternative energy resources. In this connection, the advent of modern biotechnology and genetic engineering tools has enabled scientists to manipulate the genetic material of organisms in order to exploit its hidden enormous potential.

In the past two decades, biotechnological tools have brought a paradigm shift in the orthodox and traditional ways and means of improving our various industries, health sciences, environment and agriculture.

For example, in agriculture, since 1995, there has been a sudden boom in the production of transgenic varieties of agricultural crops with enhanced protection from insect pests and diseases. Farmers around the world have gained maximum economic gains from the adoption of these improved crop varieties.

The wide adoption of these improved crop varieties by farmers around the world has resulted a huge economic benefit and positive effects on the environment by less pesticide application.

After the successful production and adoption of disease resistant crop plants, agriculture biotechnology is entering into a new phase of developing second generation transgenic crops that will be able to grow on marginal lands with high water and soil salinity and drought stresses.

It is anticipated that the development of these crop varieties will help to feed the growing populations, particularly in regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, where majority people are facing hunger, poor quality and malnourished food.

Keeping in view the promising role of biotechnology for securing the future of our coming generations, increasing number of countries, public, private sectors and multinational companies have joined the race and invested billions of dollars for research and development activities.

In some areas, scientists have excelled and accomplished significant targets like crop disease resistance as mentioned above and development of accurate laboratory tools for genetic dissection, diagnosis and research on human genetic diseases.

Pakistan, a developing country is facing multi-faceted challenges including energy crisis, food security, rapid urbanization and declining fresh water resources in the wake of increasing population and the more global phenomenon of climate change.

Like other countries, Pakistan also took a bold step towards adoption of modern biotechnology and started to establish biotechnology centers across the country. In all key national science and technology policies, the role of biotechnology as a potential tool for the growth and socio-economic development has been well acknowledged.

In National science and technology policies launched in 1997 and later in 2009, biotechnology was emphasized one of the priority areas. Pakistan also contributed and pioneered the establishment of an International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), initially proposed to be built in Pakistan but later on jointly built in India and Italy.

Despite the initial recognition and quick response, biotechnology did not take roots as an emerging source of socio-economic development in the country. For example, we started research on insect resistant transgenic cotton varieties back in 1995 and developed some transgenic lines but it took almost 15 years to launch legal commercial cultivation of these varieties in 2010.

The other leading cotton producing countries namely USA, China and India adopted and commercialized transgenic cotton varieties in 1996, 1997 and 2002 respectively and farmers in these countries earned huge economic gains.

In addition, we are also lagging behind other countries in development of second generation transgenic crops with improved tolerance to environmental stresses and crops for bio-energy production. The dependency on fossil fuels as energy sources is on the decline because of the enormous potential of bio-feed stocks (crops, trees and grasses) to produce bio-energy products such as ethanol, biodiesel, butanol and petroleum on industrial scale.
Source: The Frontier Post

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