AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION AND ITS DEVELOPMENT IN PAKISTAN

BY DR. ALI AKBAR M.DHAKAN

It is an old maxim that Pakistan is rural and rural is Agriculture which means the word agriculture is conglomeration of two words (i) Agri means field or soil (ii) Culture means cultivation or growing of crops, fruits, vegetables or other food items for human beings and even for animals or livestock  performing tillage practices by human labor with the help of animals labor also Since centuries for the human existence, Agriculture has remained the mainstay of the economy and therefore before and after the existence of Pakistan in 1947, Agricultural sector is the key sector of the economy and accounts for 21 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country which was more than half of the total GDP in 1940s. The share of employment in agriculture has also declined from more than 65 percent of the labor force in 1950 to about 48 percent today. The growth rate stood at 3.1 percent in 2012 against 2.4 percent in 2011. All crops accelerated growth of 3.2 percent compared to a negative growth of 0.2 percent last year. The major crops including cotton, sugar, sugarcane and rice achieved growth in production of 18.6 percent, 4.9 percent and 27.7 percent respectively. However, estimates of Wheat production showed a negative growth due to late receding of flood waters in lower Sindh hampering the timely cultivation of the Wheat crop during the year 2011-12. Agriculture being the lynchpin of the economy continues to be the single largest force for the growth and development of the national economy supporting 50 percent of the population for their livelihood, contributing one-fourth of the GDP and meeting food requirements of the ever increasing population and providing raw material requirements to agrobased manufacturing units such as textile, sugar, tobacco, wood, cooking oil and food and fruit processing enhancing the foreign exchange reserves through exports. Having such an important place of being the single larger sector of the economy, no proper attention could be attached but was neglected for which ill effects appeared on the productivity of the sector recurring food shortages in 1950 and there after. Consequently, for the first time, Pakistan imported over eight thousand tons of wheat in 1952-53 putting heavy burden of import bill on the economy which increased to import of food items of one million ton per year. After fifties, government assigned priorities to boost up the production of agriculture and through the 5 years plans in early sixties, essential inputs i.e. improved seeds, fertilizers and pesticides were provided to the farmers. The high yielding seed varieties known as Max-Pak of wheat and rice were popularized amongst the farming community. All the inputs including machinery i.e. Tractor and Plant protection equipments were subsidized. Various experts have observed that the policies initiated in the beginning of the 1960s, started yielding convincing results in the late 1960s thus the phenomenon was rightly referred to as the “Green Revolution”. The remarkable achievements of the revolution also encouraged the process of mechanization in the country.

            The substantial progress made in agricultural sector, crop yields per hectare of land in Pakistan are still lower than many other developing countries. The majority of the population engaged in cultivation of crops cannot produce adequate supply of food and fiber at reasonable prices for the small segment of people working in other sectors, indicates a low level of productivity in crop and livestock production.

            The yield per hectare of the major crops of Pakistan is very low as compared to the yield per hectare of these crops in the developing countries as shown in the following table.

Table I: yield per hectare of main crops in major growing countries.

Crop	Country	Yield (kgs.)	Pakistan as %
Wheat	China Egypt France Germany India Mexico USA Pakistan	3907 6150 6255 6503 2773 4788 2974 2381	60.9 38.5 38.1 36.6 85.8 49.7 80.1
Rice	China Egypt Japan India Bangladesh USA Vietnam Philippine Pakistan	6118 9431 5871 3034 3429 7448 4649 3216 3055	49.9 32.4 52.0 100.6 89.0 41.0 65.7 95.0
Maize	China Canada France India Indonesia Italy Turkey USA Mexico Pakistan	4854 7819 7170 2130 3279 8702 3826 8924 2526 1457	30.0 18.6 20.3 68.4 44.4 16.7 38.0 16.3 57.7
Sugar Cane	China Brazil Egypt India Ecuador Mexico USA Pakistan	70708 72825 90909 67442 77978 70614 77290 47934	67.8 65.8 52.7 71.0 61.5 67.9 62.0

Source: Govt. of Pakistan (2004), Agriculture Statistics of Pakistan 2002-2003

            From the above table, it is clear that Pakistan is producing one third of the wheat yield per hectare as compared to Egypt and less than two third of China’s whereas Pakistan’s Rice yield is one third of Egypt’s and nearly half of China. India, Indonesia’s maize per hectare yield is much more than that of Pakistan’s when the sugar cane yield of Egypt, India and Ecuador is higher than of Pakistan’s.

            The Need of agricultural mechanization of farms means the use of machines for conducting agricultural operations, replacing the traditional methods which involve human and animal labor. It is one of the packages of green revolution technology. It implies the use of mechanical technology in the varied farming operations like sowing, harvesting, thrashing, leveling, watering, spraying, weeding etc. It includes chemical technology or plant protection measures hydrological technology or tube wells and mechanical technology or tractors, thrashes, Bulldozers etc. Arguments in favor of farm mechanization are:

1. INCREASE IN VOLUME OF PRODUCTION: Farm Mechanization has helped in increasing the volume of agricultural production.

2. ENCOURAGES MULTIPLE CROPPING: Farm Mechanization encourages multiple cropping which was not possible under traditional farming.

3. REDUCES DEPENDENCE UPON ANIMAL POWER: Farm Mechanization reduces dependence upon animal power which is costly and also slow in operation.

4. DIVERSION OF LAND FROM GROWING FODDER: Farm Mechanization makes it possible to divert the land used for growing fodder for animal power. The same land can be brought under cultivation of growing food and nonfood crops.

5. GREATER AREA UNDER CULTIVATION: Farm Mechanization saves labor, makes the job for leveling and preparation of land helps in bringing more land under cultivation.

6. INCREASE IN LABOR PRODUCTIVITY: Farm Mechanization increases self sufficiency of farmers and raises the output per worker.

7. TIMELY WATER SUPPLY, SPRAY ETC: The timely availability of water supply from the tube wells, the use of new package of modern inputs has been made possible only with the help of Mechanization. The use of modern inputs increased the yield of crops.

8. REDUCTION OF COST: Due to efficient use of resources, through the mechanized farming the cost of production of various crops goes down.

9. INCREASE IN INCOME: Mechanization helps in increasing income of farmers by minimizing pre and post harvest losses.

10. PROVISION OF FARM EMPLOYMENT: It provided off farm employment to the population living in rural areas.

11. SELF SUFFICIENCY IN FOOD: Mechanization of agriculture helps in achieving self sufficiency and surpluses in food and other crops.

In 1951, the Agricultural Inquiry Committee appointed by Government of Pakistan pointed out that although mechanization is labor saving, the power constraint of the agricultural sector could be overcome with the use of tractor. The Committee noted that the availability of power for agricultural purpose is about 0.1 horse power HP per acre as against a recommended minimum of 0.2 HP per acre. The tractor may be a labor substitute or complement. Therefore, the use of tractor should be appreciated if it increases productivity neutralizing the adverse effects of labor displacement. In favor of mechanization, there are two views: (1) The substitution view. Between two different sources of power tractor and drought animals, tractors can be an important engine of growth being cheaper relative to animal labor and therefore has a negative impact on employment. Secondly, the net contribution view argues that tractor, through deeper tillage, timely operation and reclamation of land would lead to higher yields, both directly and through more extensive double cropping which will bring higher level of outputs requiring more labor in those operations not being performed by the tractor which will contribute to increase productivity without displacing labor bringing no adverse effects on employment objectives.

            The danger of unemployment on account of the use of mechanization has been averted by many researchers  and scholars in their studies conducted from time to time pointing out that mechanization would be of great help to get the maximum benefits in terms of higher output and employment. Some Scholars point out that mechanization in the Punjab and Pakistan has increased the labor requirements rather than displacing them, the rice yield of the mechanized farms is nearly 40 percent higher than that of the traditional farms giving an over all increase of 13 percent in the labor requirements.

           

            Now that the use of agricultural machinery in Pakistan has proved beneficial and the following table shows that its usage has increased year to year.

Table II: Agricultural Machinery used in Pakistan.   

Machinery	1968	1975	1984	1994	2004
Tractor	18,909	35,714	157,310	252,861	401663
Cultivator	14,338	31,619	146,863	236,272	369866
Mould Board Plough	2,335	2,734	7,319	28,413	40050
Disc Plough	2,513	2,938	6,355	20,372	29218
Blade	3,925	4,200	69,004	164,489	­_
Chisel Plough	_	_	712	6,535	_
Rotavator	_	_	2,101	5,594	_
Bar/Disc Harrow	2,007	2,373	8,140	12,233	23764
Ridger	_	120	4,711	10,984	71338
Grain Drill/Planter	563	1,174	11,251	64,126	70810
Sprayer	_	_	_	20,778	_
Trailer	_	18,074	98,787	176,412	242655
Wheat Thresher	_	5,635	78,377	112,707	137270
Reaper	_	_	_	7,972	_
Combine Harvester (Wheat & Paddy)	_	_	_	859	6000

Source: Internet

Table III: Number of Tube wells and number of tractors.

Fiscal Year	Number of Tube wells Public & Private	Production of Tractors (Nos)
1990-91	339,840	13,841
1991-92	355,840	10,077
1992-93	374,099	16,628
1993-94	444,179	15,129
1994-95	463,463	17,063
1995-96	485,050	16,218
1996-97	506,824	10,121
1997-98	531,259	14,242
1998-99	563,226	26,885
1999-00	609,775	35,038
2000-01	659,278	32,553
2001-02	707,273	24,311
2002-03	768,962	27,101
2003-04	950,144	36,059
2004-05	984,294	44,095
2005-06	999,569	49,439
2006-07	1,025,836	54,610
2007-08	1,016,125	53,607
2008-09	1,069,991	60,107
2009-10	1,070,375	71,730
2010-11	1,075,073	70,855
2011-12p	1,075,073	26,858

Source: Pakistan Economic Survey 2011-12

P = Provisional

            It has been clear from the above two tables that agricultural machinery is being tremendously used in Pakistan and in the future it will be surely used because of its benefits for the increasing population to meet the shortage of food items and face the poverty in the coming years.

Conclusions:

            According to a study conducted in Peshawar University, it has been concluded that both mechanized and traditional methods are applied for the cultivation of the major crops. There are significant differences between mechanized and traditional farms, in terms of manual labor requirements, Bullock labor use, family size, cropping intensity, land fragmentation, livestock holdings, input use and output etc. Within each farming system there are significant differences between farm sizes and tenancies. The marginal productivity of machinery is higher on large farms and Owner cultivators which show that these categories have comparatively received more benefits from mechanization.

            It has therefore been recommended that as Agriculture is the largest sector of the economy, more attention is to be given to this sector by fulfilling the agricultural input requirements of the farming community at reasonable prices. Both the mechanized and traditional farms are producing in a decreasing return to scale. However, performance of the mechanized farms is better than that of the traditional farms. The farming community can improve their performance if the inputs are optimally utilized.                 

The author is Ex-Deputy Governor, State of Pakistan Karachi at present Dean Faculty at Private University Karachi.

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dated:14-8-2017