Agriculture sector has always been affected due to poor government policies. Despite being an agricultural country, we have never been self-sufficient in food even for a few years. One year there is a bumper crop of wheat, then due to government policies, next year we are importing wheat from other countries. There is neither continuity nor stability in policies. The policy is made only for that year, what will happen in the coming years? Will be seen. Can countries run like this? No, then what is the result? That is what we are suffering. What is lacking in our country? Allah Ta’ala has blessed us abundantly with every blessing, like land, water, weather, laborers. But may Allah Almighty give perfect guidance to our rulers, they are so incompetent or they are not sincere with the country and the people, otherwise how could it be that despite being an agricultural country, we would have been importing food and drinks from abroad by wasting valuable foreign exchange? The entire country has been mortgaged to borrow a few billion dollars from the IMF. The public has gone away. By following the conditions of the IMF, the people have been grinded in the mill of inflation. Suicides have increased. Family ties have become more intense. Divorce rate has increased. Brain drain is happening. Competent and talented people are leaving the country.
We spend billions of dollars annually in importing pulses, wheat, tea, olives and other such agricultural commodities. But till now no such sincere government has come to power which would seriously take practical steps to minimize agricultural imports. If the families that have been ruling for years had followed this from the first day, today they would be earning billions of dollars worth of foreign exchange by exporting agricultural products and today the economic situation of the country would also be completely different. People would be happy. The rupee would have strengthened against the dollar. The world would not think of us as beggars, our rulers would have been respected in the true sense. But unfortunately it could not happen till today. It is more regrettable that our rulers are still attracted towards this. We are fond of throwing billions of rupees into such pointless affairs that ostensibly get our wows and praises. There are some small countries in the world that are running the whole country by making a name in one of the agricultural products.
For example, it is a small country, but the whole country is exporting flowers. That is, exports of flower production are heavy on everything. On the other hand, there is an unfortunate country like Pakistan that everything can be abundant, nature has provided immense resources but no one is interested in it. We import fruits, onions, garlic, rice, tobacco, tea, pulses. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern regions have abundant land for tobacco and tea. God has not spared any mercy on this land and its inhabitants. People cannot force these rulers. They have their own preferences even though the situation is in front of them they will be well aware of them. But if they are still not doing it, what can you say? It is not known what constraints bind them.
Take a small example of olive oil. We spend billions of rupees annually on imports because we have a large number of consumers of olives. For this reason, the government imports from Turkey and Spain or other European countries. For the past few years, olives have been cultivated on a large area in Rawalpindi, Chakwal areas of Pothwar. In the beginning, attractive incentives were given by the government to attract farmers in this direction. For example, supply of free plants, free information and training programs, etc. Now Alhamdulillah those olive plants are young and have started producing but also olive oil is being extracted in Rawalpindi and Chakwal areas and now local oil is more reliable and relatively cheaper than imported olive oil. And if the government continues to patronize these farmers, billions of rupees spent on importing olive oil can be saved in the next few years. That is, if the government wants, we can be self-sufficient in agricultural commodities, but at the same time, we can also help lighten the country’s debt burden by exporting these valuable commodities. May Allah Ta’ala help the rulers to focus on this important issue. Ameen