Some alternative policy approaches to agricultural development : the Pakistan case

This study examines the role of agricultural policies, past and present, adopted by the various governments of Pakistan in agricultural development and suggests, at the end, some alternative policy approaches to achieve· key objectives which past policies have failed to achieve. It is not concerned with policy-making as an institutional discipline which should help to make better policy nor with the dynamics of decision making except occasionally for illustrating a point. Agricultural policies can be viewed as a comprehensive, broad framework of action plans relating to crop production, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry, plant protection, water-management, improvement of cultural practices,biological control of water-logged and salt-affected soil and to the associated institutional mechanisms such as land reforms, land utilization and tenure, co-operatives, procurement and supply of key agricultural inputs, subsidies and price-supports, agricultural extension,research, marketing, storage and so on. This study does not go into the detail of policies relating to all of these technological and institutional factors; it is confined specially to the socio-economic problems created by the agricultural modernisation programmes and policies pursued by the successive governments of Pakistan after independence in 1947 and to the policy options that can be suggested for dealing with these problems.