ISSUES AND ECONOMICS OF POULTRY PRODUCTION  

• Asif Maqbool
• Muhammad Rasheed

 Introduction

Every Government in the world is responsible to provide adequate food to their inhabitants and assured an atmosphere free from hunger and malnutrition. The food security objective becomes more important when 15-20% of the world population is under threat of not getting sufficient food to meet minimum nutritional requirements for a healthy and productive life. The poor nutritional status is prevalent due to lack of sufficient energy and protein in the food or due to not having sufficient food.

Until 1964 poultry production was a cottage industry in Pakistan. The management and production on modern scientific lines was not known and disease control measures were also not sufficient. In 1964, the foundation of commercial poultry production was laid by PIA shaver by introducing new and improved breeds of layers and broilers and by Lever Brothers with the production of poultry feed on modern lines. The Govt. on her part, exempted this industry from income tax and sales tax, allowed export of table eggs, day old chicks and broiler on subsidized rates. Poultry has still remained a neglected and unimportant sideline of our agricultural industry. Productivity of local birds in terms of eggs or returns has been low and was not considered it as a paying enterprise. Principally it was raised as stray birds on which particularly no cash outlay had been involved.

A balanced diet is essential for good health, vigor and productive capacity of the people. Protein plays an important role in the formation of balanced human diet. There are mainly two origins of proteins i.e. animal and plant. The human diet in Pakistan is deficient with respect to proteins of animal origin. At present 66% Pakistanies are deficient in protein. The requirement of protein is 102.7 g per person per day while only 69.61 g per person per day is being used in Pakistan. The existing gap between supply and demand of protein is 33.09 g per person per day. The main source of animal protein in Pakistan is beef, mutton, milk, poultry meat and eggs, respectively. To overcome the gaps between and demand of protein, poultry meat is contributing a dominant share and further its share can be enhanced by improving the profitability of producer and by decreasing prices at the retail level. However, existing infrastructure of poultry sector has capability to narrow down the gap between supply and demand of proteins. 

The cost of distribution from producer to the consumer is very high mainly due to high share of middlemen involved at various stages.  The extraction of abnormal profit by middlemen reduced the profit of bird growers’ and it discourages them to expand the production process. The profit share of middlemen also needs to be reduced in order to lower prices at the retail level.  The objective of the present study is to look at the profitability of different stake holders involved in poultry sector and then to formulate the policy that can distribute profits among different stake holders on rationality basis. We should keep in mind that producers’ cannot be motivated to expand their production system without increasing their profitability.

The paper is organized as follow.  The section 2 discusses the marketing issues and channels of poultry production.  Section 3 explains the data collection procedure and delineates the methodology and section 4 summarizes the results and discussion. Last section illustrates the conclusion.

 Marketing Issues and Channels

The marketing of broiler is in the hands of few functionaries who bound the farmers to sell their product at the maneuvered prices.  The farmer’s can’t take the risk of keeping the broiler after the recommended growth period because after that certain period cost of production increases rapidly than the weight of broiler. After interviewing different stake holders we observed that rapid price fluctuation, under weighing, high charges of commission are the major problem of present marketing system. .

 Disposal of Broiler output

Farmers mainly have three outlets for the disposal of their product namely main market, town market and farm. About seventy per cent of producers sell their output in the main markets. At town and farm level, the retailers and feed dealers work as intermediaries. The procedure of current marketing system was highly criticized by farmers.

 Price Fluctuation

The business of poultry farming is expensive and risky and it is operated on purely traditional lines without any modern marketing facilities. Farmers are producing broilers without foreseeing the supply and demand situation in the market. In high supply situation, prices prevail at low levels and vice versa. Such a situation creates uncertainty in the market and as a result, the farmers are unable to plan their businesses. They are totally frustrated and dissatisfied over the existing price mechanism. Therefore, the farmers jointly suggest for creation of an institution that can properly monitor the market and disseminate market information.

  Under Weighing

The majority of farmers claim that intermediaries do not follow business ethics and try to fetch maximum profit from business transactions. They use many tactics such as juggling with weighing scales, under counting and under weighing to deceive the farmers. In view of this, the farmers suggest a tripartite market arrangement in the form of farmers, middlemen and the government.

 High Charges by Commission Agent

Generally, the main broiler business is operated through intermediaries namely commission agents, feed dealers, and butchers who charge certain amount as commission fee for their services. Farmers for timely disposal of their output use the intermediaries, but they report that commission fees of these intermediaries are very high. Sadly, there is no agency to check such unfair commission rates.

 Marketing Channels of poultry meat

Marketing system remains still in traditional and heterogeneous condition. As a result, producers could not develop direct linkages with the consumers. As a result producers are not getting expected prices while consumers are paying high prices and it is one of the main hindrances to improve the contribution of poultry in protein uptakes. First of all it is important to understand the present channels of marketing system .

 Marketing channels of Birds

Commission agents/Wholesaler is the major player in deciding the price at the retailer’s level. Reasons of non remunerative price to producers are: a) Missing direct linkages between producers and consumers. The missing linkages do not provide chance to producer to understand consumer’s behavior.  b) Lack of investment to develop infrastructure could enable them to reach directly to the retailers. The provision of credit to the bird growers will allow them to reach directly to the retailer and could kick the commission agent out of the process.  Government should also take initiatives to develop laws which can allow producers’ to sell their products directly in market.

To improve the efficiency of existing marketing system a detailed analysis is required to suggest the policy interruptions.  The existing poultry marketing system has been functioning without much attention of planners and policy makers. The present study was planned to look into poultry marketing channels prevalent in the present setup with a view to see their efficiency and suggest remedial measures for their improvement.

 Data Collection and Methodology

The present study was conducted on commercial poultry industry. This source contributes a dominant market share in supply of poultry birds almost in all big cities. However, present study was focused at the local market of Faisalabad city. The nature of the problem deserved much wider focus like that of province or the country as a whole but due to obvious limitations of research viz. time and financial resources, the study was restricted only to 10 miles radius of the Faisalabad city.    

An adequate and scientifically sound sample is essential to yield valid results. By keeping this in view, the information was collected from all those stakeholders involved in the chain of transporting poultry from farm level to ultimate consumers. Thus, a representative sample of commercial poultry producers, commission agents, wholesalers, retailers was taken for detailed investigation. Fifteen commercial poultry producers were taken to collect information on production of birds. Twenty commission agents were taken form the wholesale market. There were no wholesalers of birds in the market. Commission agents act as wholesalers. Similarly, twenty retailers were taken randomly.

For the purpose of getting information, separate questionnaire was developed for each category of respondents. The questionnaire was filled in by direct interview method with respondents. Finally the data collected were tested statistically and analyzed for discussion purposes.

 Effective Marketing  System for Farmers

• Muhammad Rasheed
• Asif Maqbool

Information is significant to the social and economic activities that comprise the development process. Development economy has witnessed agricultural, industrial and information technology revolutions. Good communication system and information system reinforce commitments to sustainable productivity. 

Information system is a process that transforms data into information. When this information is further refined it acts as a basis for decision-making leading to the development of decision support system. Thus, strategic questions posed by researchers and policy makers in agriculture sector can best be answered by thorough and reliable exploration of related data. This is very essential in agricultural marketing system.

Market information is an important facilitating function in the agriculture marketing system. It facilitates marketing decisions, regulates the competitive market process and simplifies marketing mechanisms. Market information is a means of increasing the efficiency of marketing system and promoting improved price formation. It is crucial to the farmers to make informed decisions about what to grow, when to harvest, to which market produce should be sent and whether or not to store it. Improved information should enable traders to move produce profitably from a surplus to a deficit market and to make decisions about the viability of carrying out storage where technically possible.

In fact, marketing information plays a vital role in the functioning of the whole market, by regulating the competitive marketing process. By helping ensure that produce goes to markets where there is a demand for it, it shortens marketing channels and cuts down on transport costs. It helps ensure that each marketing transaction is a fair one, and that all participants share the risks and benefits. However, this does not happen if marketing information is distributed unequally, as is generally the case when many small-scale farmers in Pakistan are selling to a relatively few large-scale dealers. The farmers then end up bearing the greater part of the risk, while the dealers end up with the greater part of the profits.

Recent advances in information technology are making it more feasible to provide small-scale farmers with the marketing information they need. However, farmers may not benefit from sophisticated facilities, if the system is poorly managed or not designed for their needs. It is not enough for marketing information to be collected; it must also be disseminated in a form accessible to farmers and adapted to their needs.

The essential data of marketing information are price data. Agricultural price data are based on thousands or millions of transactions, many of them on a small scale, that are taking place every day all over the country. Collecting an adequate sample and making sure that these are representative enough to be useful is not an easy task. In many countries, the central government office is linked to numerous reporting stations in the provinces which report regularly on the local prices of a range of commodities. 

In developed countries, there is a well developed system of wholesale markets in towns and cities. It is the prices in these wholesale markets which provide the basic price data, collected and transmitted to head office by market officials as a normal part of their duties. The data is collected and transmitted by an on-line computer network. 

In the less industrialized countries, there are not many wholesale markets and a different system is used. In Pakistan, price information is based on surveys of both the farm gate prices and the prices paid by consumers, carried out regularly by designated farmers and dealers. The marketing information from these countries is usually collected and given preliminary processing at the reporting stations manually and transmitted to the head office by fax, radio, or telephone.

Each system has its basic difficulties. It is obviously much easier to collect price data from wholesale markets, where prices are being discovered openly and publicly during auction. However, there is the problem that wholesale markets charge fees, and farmers often try to avoid them and sell privately. These private sales may represent a considerable market share. Obviously they are distorting the accuracy of official price data, but nobody knows to what extent. In countries where wholesale markets are not well developed, most sales between farmers and dealers are taking place at the farm gate or in small markets. Since price discovery is occurring in a series of scattered, private transactions, the reliability of price data is a major concern.

Another major problem shared by both systems is that information about prices is not very useful unless quality is taken into account. Prices for good quality fruits and vegetables and preferred rice varieties may be more than double those paid for poorer quality foods. For farmers to be able to use price data, they need to be able to compare what has been sold with the produce they themselves are planning to market. This needs a uniform national grading system. National marketing information systems usually provide price information through the mass media, such as newspapers and radio. However, it is not clear how useful such information is likely to be to farmers.

In most marketing information systems, regional data is transmitted to a central national facility where it is processed and amalgamated with similar data from all over the country. The result is useful to those working for central government agencies, who need to know what is happening over the whole country. It is of less value to the farmers in the rural areas which provided the original data.

Recommendations for improving Marketing Information Systems

• Poor awareness of farmers on available market information clearly highlights the need to create awareness on market led extension among the farmers through the agricultural extension agencies. so that the marketing information on agriculture commodities are incorporated in the extension services along with production aspects to the farmers.

• Advanced information technology is suited to government collection and analysis of large quantities of
   data. It is of little relevance in terms of a direct information service for farmers, although it might be valuable if suitable intermediaries are used. Generally speaking, farmers benefit more from simple technology which communicates information in a lucid and relevant way. It should be noted that farmers are interested, not only in current price information, but also in marketing issues and news, and demand forecasts.

• There is wide price variation according to quality. Fruit and vegetable prices are particularly influenced by quality, including size. The lack of a uniform national grading system is a major constraint to the development of an efficient national marketing information service. 

• Farmers must be able to seek out and compare the information available for different outlets if they are to sell to best advantage. Price information is less useful if there is only a single market outlet, or if farmers are price takers rather than price seekers. Where there is a very wide gap between the farm gate price and the price paid in wholesale markets and by consumers, marketing information can help narrow the gap, but only as part of an efficient marketing system. 

• Farmers are interested mainly in prices in local markets where they sell their goods for efficient dissemination to farmers, market information services need to be decentralized, especially in remote areas where there are wide regional price differences. 

• There is a need to develop a system of market information utilizing the modern information communication techniques so that the farmers are provided with the required market information at the village itself so as to make appropriate decisions with respect to production and marketing plans including post harvest management storage, processing and sale of agriculture commodities.

• Farmers’ dependence on informal sources such as fellow farmers, friends and relatives for market information indicates the inability of formal sources in disseminating the required information to the farmers which calls for revitalizing the Market Intelligence System especially on dissemination aspects in public institutions like State Department of Agricultural Marketing, State Agricultural Universities etc. with modern communication technology.

• The existing marketing information is restricted to arrivals and prices. There is a need to cover other components of market information such as quality standards, post harvest management, storage, transportation, imports / exports apart from production scenario.

• Though the manpower and infrastructure was found to be a constraint in market information system, it can be overcome by policy changes. There is enough funds and trained manpower to improve upon the system.

 Entrepreneurial Mindset in Pakistan

• Asif Maqbool
• Muhammad Rasheed

Entrepreneurship as a whole contributes to social wealth by creating new markets, new industries, new technologies, new institutional forms, new jobs and also increases real productivity. The jobs created through entrepreneurial activities in turn lead to an equitable distribution of income that culminates in higher standards of living for the population. This ensures equality in society and reduces status gap between different income groups. In this way, the resources available to the government likewise increase and hence enable it to offer social services like hospitals and schools, develop infrastructure, and keep law and order.

For over a century there has been a positive trend in economic activity around the globe. All the developed industrialized countries have progressed by nurturing entrepreneurship.  More recent studies have confirmed this result for most of the developing countries as well in the 1970 and 1980s. The empirical evidence clearly showed that the firm size distribution in developed countries began to shift away from larger corporations towards entrepreneurial activity. Furthermore, in developing economies entrepreneurial activity is positively related to economic development. As people shift from wage work to entrepreneurial activity, the entire culture of society and economy changes.

It is considered the prime responsibility of public sector to provide job opportunities to citizen and currently in Pakistan; nationals hold maximum number of the jobs in public sector. Public sector jobs are virtually lifelong jobs; offer excellent compensation packages and as a result are highly sought-after. A similar situation exists in the semi-private sector. This sector consists of large companies and offers excellent work conditions and compensations even better than the government sector. As a result, the average Pakistani has slowly lost his traditional preference for independent business activity. As such, we see people wandering in search of these public and private sectors jobs instead of initiating their own business ventures.

Entrepreneurial activity is viewed as a risky way of earning one’s living and has lost social approval. This is particularly true in Pakistani society where household head has got all the responsibility of family. However, in the business field, Pakistan has a culture of family business, which mainly concentrates on trading. A part from trading, other business activity has traditionally been restricted to the production and distribution of food items. Considerable effort is necessary, therefore, to develop a new mindset and a class of individuals who are prepared to examine the economic environment critically and creatively, move from trading to industry and have the courage to take calculated business risks. This is more useful for the persons who have skills and capabilities which can be used productively for them selves and for their country as well.

In this changing trend of entrepreneurship, youth must be encouraged and acknowledged. This may be a right strategy for our country because a fair majority of population belongs to young age people. However, in order to promote this culture, relevant constraints should be addressed. The constraints that young entrepreneurs in Pakistan face range across a number of topics. The most frequently encountered obstacles are the bureaucratic procedures in starting a business and corruption in the relevant government offices, both of which take time to overcome and increase the cost of starting a business. Other problems include inadequate infrastructure, which raises the cost of doing business, and risk of political instability, which specifically affects the tourism industry. The greatest impediment to entrepreneurs in a country like Pakistan is the lack of a culture that appreciates entrepreneurship’s role.

Unemployment is a menace for any country including Pakistan. This is such an economic disruption which leaves productive potential of the country untapped. The problem of the developing countries is the lack of resources due to which these cannot generate enough economic activity to accommodate all citizens. The government hopes to achieve a middle-income status for the population, but it cannot do this by creating jobs for all unemployed youth. The private sector will go a long way in reducing unemployment if the economic conditions are conducive to growth, but it may not be enough. Entrepreneurship is the key to increase youth employment and income levels for population of the country. America is a good example of how entrepreneurship can move a country, as its booming entrepreneurial sector is responsible for much of its relative economic prosperity. The U.S. is one of the most entrepreneurial nations because Americans believe that they have opportunities to start businesses and that their culture respects entrepreneurship as an occupation.

Promoting an entrepreneurial culture should be a top priority for policy makers. In this regard, first step should be to increase the availability of information about entrepreneurship. Additionally, the education system should be reformed to give individuals a good combination of specialist and generalist skills. The main doctrine of entrepreneurship should be a required course for all students so as to equip them with skills like writing a business plan, preparing a proposal to present to investors, the steps necessary to register a company, general accounting and other important business skills. In order to do this, the Pakistan government must stop trying to feed people fish and instead teach them how to fish.

To promote this culture, the government and the private sector should work together to put in place measures that foster mobility between universities and the private sector in order to transfer knowledge and ideas, facilitate the entry of new participants with innovative ideas, and foster a culture that encourages risk-taking and accepts failure as permissible social and individual norms. The government should also emphasize the importance of institutions in building a stronger culture of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurs should be rewarded for contributing to economic growth. Furthermore, governments should increase the use of technology for efficient service delivery. One important way to do this is by putting most of the processes it takes to start a business online and establishing a one-stop place for registering a company. This will ultimately reduce the time needed to start a business and make it harder for civil servants to engage in corrupt activities. The educational system should also give individuals the skills to deal with constant change. Lastly, the potential contribution of women entrepreneurs cannot be ignored. Unique opportunities should be created for women entrepreneurs to network and get the support they need to grow businesses.

Last but not least, an important avenue for introducing entrepreneurial culture is agriculture in Pakistan. No doubt, the very base of the country’s economy is agriculture or related industry. The interesting and attracting point in this sector is that agriculture is a source of supply for many industries whereas at the same time act as major market for many industries. Overtime, we also have lost our culture and traditions related to agribusiness. Moreover, many people have indigenous knowledge which must be documented. In this context, our farmers, young agrarians and female counterpart should be encouraged to show their skills. Government should come ahead to support their budding business activities whereas private sector should extend helping hand by offering contracts and services. Entrepreneurial culture can bring a revolution in Pakistan; we all are waiting for since long.     

Globalization and its after affects

• Muhammad Rasheed
• Asif Maqbool 

Globalization is a buzz word and it means different things to different people. To “globalize,” means “to make worldwide in scope or application. Globalization can be viewed as the integration of inputs and outputs into global markets, sharing of information and knowledge, and promulgation of rules governing such integration. For some people globalization is primarily a synonym for global business. The positive and negative affects of globalization and the groups that resist and support globalization are many. The World Bank report (2001) says that although globalization presents considerable opportunities for developing countries, it also contains significant risks. Associated with international integration are concerns about increasing inequality, shifting power, and cultural uniformity. Some of the intense impacts of globalization can be seen on small farmers and rural communities, both in developed and developing countries. While some people support the arrival of globalization, such optimism hides the negative impacts that accompany what should more appropriately be called corporate globalization. Corporate globalization affects both rural and urban areas, but its impacts on rural communities are diverse and profound. 

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) functions as the foundation of the WTO trading system, and remains in force. As in March 2010, 153 countries are members of the WTO. In becoming Members of the WTO, these countries undertake to adhere to the 18 specific agreements. Of these agreements, Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) appears to have greatest impact. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) play a vital role in the process of economic globalization. 

Recent years have witnessed a marked acceleration in the tempo of globalization. Its scope has also widened beyond the realm of economy to embrace the domains of social, cultural and political norms and practices. This powerful thrust has been associated with far-reaching consequences for economic well-being. In the case of agriculture, globalization demands export oriented cash crop farming, free trade, discouragement of subsidies, insistence on standards, and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Globalization envisaged food security to help augmenting availability of food grains, trade to bring about flexibility in the matter of food security, increased access to food by the poor, increase employment opportunities, and cash crops to earn foreign exchange. What has happened is quite contradictory to these expectations. Globalization has resulted in the decline of household subsistence production. People look for greener pastures in other countries as laborers. Rural demographics are changing. While men leave, women are forced to reduce farming. 

Economic globalization is leading to a concentration of the seed industry, the increased use of pesticides, and finally increased debt. In the regions where industrial agriculture has been introduced through globalization, higher costs are making it virtually impossible for small farmers to survive. 

Farmers who have been growing seed for generations now face legal barriers. It is said that up to 1.4 billion people in developing countries depend on farm-saved seeds as the primary seed source. Genetic engineers are building on the accumulated success of generations of farmers who have selected and improved seeds for thousands of years, whereas the private companies claim that they should have exclusive patent rights. For decades, public research institutions trained farmers and were the centers of agricultural research. About 45% of U.S. plant breeders at universities said that they have trouble getting seed from private companies, which places serious constraints on their research. Farmers who traditionally grew pulses, millets, and paddy have been lured by seed companies. Their native seeds have been displaced with new hybrids which cannot be saved and need to be purchased every season at a high cost. Hybrids are also very vulnerable to pest attacks. Spending on pesticides in some countries has increased 2,000 per cent. Now farmers are consuming the same pesticides as a way of killing themselves so that they can escape permanently from unpaid debts. Green revolution was a technological solution for food challenges when the Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug brought dwarf variety of wheat and explored in South Asia. But now the hybrid seed by transnational companies have put the people at risk of their lives.

 Agriculture is a living in developing countries while it is a business in developed countries. 45 % of the people live dollar a day. Dollar is not for one person but for the entire family. Farmers earn less and consumers pay more. Private companies often have little incentive to service subsistence farmers and public sector has no workforce to fill the gap. 

Protective subsidies are given in industrial countries while other WTO member countries are discouraged. In some countries zero tariffs are imposed. United States gives over $18 billion a year in subsidies to its own farmers. This has affected prices of cotton for farmers in other countries. Farmers in developed countries receive subsidies for not growing corn and for not raising hogs. 

Farmers lack access to overseas markets, where they can sell their products at higher prices and purchase cheaper inputs and better technology. They also lack sufficient access to local markets and face unfair competition from subsidized imports. Inputs and outputs are controlled by multinational companies. Controlling both the inputs and the marketing of commodities jeopardizes farmers’ existence. Trade regulations, adjusting to the rules that govern international trade, food safety standards have affected the small farmers very much. Rise of Supermarkets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have a direct impact on local retailers and on the lives of millions of small farmers.

Drought and weather vagaries affect much. Deep drilling tube wells have no water. Millions face water famine. It is man-made due to mining of scarce ground water for cash crops for export. Power is supplied hardly 6-7 hours a day. 

Several studies have indicated that in many developing countries, freer trade, better communication, and more rapid movement of goods and technology have raised living standards and reduced poverty but benefits accrued mainly in urban areas. Farmers in general and small farmers in particular are least benefited. In developing countries large farmers appears to be taking advantage of reaping the benefits of agricultural markets of developed countries. With their economic and political influence, they are able to get best technologies from research stations, grow cash crops, negotiate agreements, and move their products. On the other hand the small farmers are hand to mouth farmers feeding their families with meager produce they yield.

In many developing countries deep cuts in government budgets have led to a scaling back of public sector research. National as well as international agricultural research programs continue to focus on boosting the yields of traditional food products. Inadequate resources are devoted to crops that can help farmers enter the cash economy. Not much research on small-scale farmers. There is every need to develop strategies that can respond quickly and efficiently the problems of globalization. Globalization serves breakdown borders in markets results in cultural interaction, ability of capital and services to act freely globally .But the political basis remains local. Unless local aspects are balanced in a democratic way the problems will remain as they are. 

The agricultural information transfer system consists of four independent, interrelated components: development, documentation, dissemination, and diffusion of information. These components broadly correspond to generation, organization, communication, and utilization of information. The participants in this model facilitate interaction, networking, feedback and collaboration by serving each other in a dynamic dual function as both a resource base and a customer base.

The dominant companies in plant breeding, pesticides, veterinary medicine and pharmaceuticals are known as "gene giants." Patenting genes, genetic traits and enabling technologies, legally restricts access to new agricultural biotechnologies. By the end of 1998, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had granted 1370 biotech patents to the top 30 patent assignees, 74% of which were held by six gene-giants: Monsanto, Dupont, Syngenta and Dow. Only 12% of corporate research focuses on farm level technologies. In contrast, 80% of public research is oriented to the farmer. By and large, corporate breeders are interested in industrial crop commodities such as soybeans, maize, cotton and canola, not in subsistence agriculture. On average, developing countries devote only 7.5% of total government spending to agriculture and less than one third goes toward research. Annual foreign aid to agriculture in poor countries has been gradually reduced. Measured in U.S. dollars, the aid fell by 57% between 1988 and 1996, from $9.24 billion down to just $4.0 billion. With the decline of public sector research, who will address the needs of poor farmers, global food security, and environment? 

Information service includes not only providing bibliographic information, but also service on demand by farmers. Who can do this? It has to be the specialists who reach out to the farmers. This is where the role of the extension service can have an impact, as there has been an apparent shift in research towards to non CG-mandate crops. 

In order to take advantage of niche markets, farmers need know what products are needed, including specific quality traits or attributes. Second, they need to know whether they have an inherent comparative advantage in producing these products in relation to other potential suppliers. Third, they need to learn the most efficient and effective means of supplying these niche markets. Fourth, they may need to achieve economies of scale by getting organized into some type of marketing alliance or to work through an existing cooperative so they can provide processors or consumers with a consistent supply of high quality product. Public research and extension can play a more active role in assisting farmers to participate more effectively in this emerging global economy.

WTO Impact on Small Farmers of Asian Economies   

• Asif Maqbool
• Muhammad Rasheed
• Naeem Qasim

The 20th century was a terrible blight on small farmers everywhere. In both wealthy capitalist economies and in socialist countries, farmers paid a heavy price for industrialization. In advanced capitalist countries like the United States, a deadly combination of economies of scale, capital-intensive technology, and the market led to large corporations cornering agricultural production and processing. Small and medium farms were relegated to a marginal role in production and a minuscule portion of the work force.

Today, perhaps the greatest threat to small farmers is free(WTO) trade. And the farmers are fighting back. They have helped, for instance, to stalemate the Doha round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This tug of war between farmers and free trade is nowhere more visible than in Asia.

Asian governments placed the burden of industrialization on the peasantry during the phase of so-called developmentalist, industry-first policies. In Taiwan and South Korea, land reform first triggered prosperity in the countryside in the 1950s, stimulating industrialization. But with the shift to export-led industrialization in 1965, there was demand for low-wage industrial labor, so government policies deliberately depressed prices of agricultural goods. In this way, peasants subsidized the emergence of Newly Industrializing Economies. Peasant incomes declined relative to urban incomes, and the resulting stagnation of a once-vibrant countryside led to massive migration to the cities and a steady supply of cheap labor for factories. The farmers left in the countryside were primarily poor and aging, and they formed an increasingly small part of the national work force.

In Thailand, for instance, a tax on rice exports insulated the domestic market from price movements in the international market, depressing the price of rice and reducing the wage costs of non-agricultural employers. A transfer of real wealth from the countryside to the city took place every year between 1962 and 1981, except for 1970. Not surprisingly, despite the image of Thailand as an agricultural superpower, a large percentage of the rural population remains poor.

In China, millions of peasants died of starvation during the Great Leap Forward as the government requisitioned grain surplus to finance Mao Zedong’s super-industrialization drive. The chaos of the Cultural Revolution allowed peasants to regain a degree of control over production because the government was in crisis. Following the death of Mao in 1976, Deng Xiaoping dealt with the crisis by introducing the “household contract responsibility system.” Each family was given a piece of land to farm, along with the right to sell what was left over after a fixed proportion of the produce was sold to the government at a state-determined price. This led to peasant prosperity that, as in Taiwan, stimulated industrial production to fulfill rural demand.

But, as in Taiwan, this golden age of the peasantry came to an end, and the cause was identical: the adoption of urban-centered, export-oriented industrialization. Primitive capital accumulation for industry took the form of requisitioning peasant surpluses via heavy taxation. Currently, the various tiers of the Chinese government foist a total of 269 different taxes on farmers, along with often-arbitrary administrative charges. Not surprisingly, in many places, taxes now eat up 15% of farmers’ income, three times the official national limit of 5%. Not surprisingly, too, while the economy has been growing at 8-10% a year, peasant income has stagnated, so that urban dwellers now have, on average, six times the income of peasants. True indeed is the observation of the rural advocates Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao that the urban industrial economy has been built “on the shoulders of peasants.”

The forcing of peasants to subsidize industrialization was indeed harsh. But at least trade policies at the time helped to mitigate the pain by barring agricultural imports that were even cheaper than local commodities. Practically all Asian countries with agricultural sectors tightly controlled imports via quotas and high tariffs. This protective shield, however, was severely eroded when countries signed the Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) and began joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) starting in 1995.

The AOA forced open agricultural markets by banning quotas, which were converted to tariffs, and required governments to import a minimum volume of each agricultural commodity at a low tariff. At the same time, under the pretext of controlling the heavy subsidization of agriculture in developed countries, the AOA institutionalized the various channels through which subsidies flowed, such as export subsidies and direct cash payments to farming interests in the northern hemisphere.

As a result, the level of subsidization of agriculture actually increased in developed countries in the first decade of the WTO. The total amount of agricultural subsidies provided by the OECD’s member governments rose from $182 billion in 1995 to $280 billion in 1997, $315 billion in 2001, $318 billion in 2002, and almost $300 billion in 2005. The United States and the European Union (EU) were spending $9-10 billion more on subsidies in the early 2000s than they were a decade earlier. For every $100 of agro-exports from the United States, government subsidies accounted for $20-30. In the case of the EU, the figure was $40-50. While unsubsidized smallholders in the developing world had to survive on less than $400 a year, American and European farmers were receiving, respectively, an average of $21,000 and $16,000 a year in subsidies.

With massive American and European subsidies distorting global prices in a downward direction, developing country agriculture became “non-competitive” under the conditions of WTO-mandated trade liberalization. As the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) notes, instantaneous import surges following the adoption of the AOA in a number of developing countries led to “consequential difficulties” for “import-competing industries.” The report continued, “Without adequate market protection, accompanied by development programs, many more domestic products would be displaced, or undermined sharply, leading to a transformation of domestic diets and to increased dependence on imported foods”. This historic shift to dependence on food imports was, needless to say, accompanied by the displacement of millions of peasants.

Even before the AOA took effect, the World Bank was predicting that Indonesian farmers would lose out under the new regime. Indeed, since 1995, farmers in rice and other basic commodities have been marginalized. Meanwhile, competitive pressures induced by trade liberalization led to the expansion of commercial plantations at the expense of smallholders.

In the Philippines, corn farmers, chicken farmers, cattle raisers, and vegetable growers were driven to bankruptcy in huge numbers. In Mindanao, where corn is a staple crop, many farmers were wiped out. As analyst Aileen Kwa has described, “It is not an uncommon sight to see farmers there leaving their corn to rot in the fields as the domestic corn prices have dropped to levels [at which] they have not been able to compete.” With production stagnant, land devoted to corn across the country contracted sharply from 3,149,300 hectares in 1995 to 2,150,300 hectares in 2000.

In China, tens of thousands of farmers, including those growing soybeans and cotton, have been marginalized with China’s entry into the WTO. Indeed, to maintain and increase access for its manufacturers to developed countries, the government has chosen to sacrifice its farmers. According to the Institute of International Economics: “The challenge of managing the farm sector has grown with China’s WTO commitments in agriculture, which are more far reaching than those of other developing countries and in certain respects exceed those of high-income countries. The Chinese government agreed to reduce tariffs and institute other policies that meaningfully increase market access; accepted tight restrictions on the use of agricultural subsidies; and pledged to eliminate all agricultural export subsidies. These commitments went far beyond those made by other participants in the Uruguay Round negotiations that led to the WTO’s creation.”

In Sri Lanka, thousands of small farmers staged street demonstrations to protest the import of chicken parts and eggs, claiming they were being driven out of business. The FAO concurred, noting that import surges on major food items like chilies, onions, and potatoes made local production “precarious, as reflected in the significant drop in areas of production.”

In India, tariff liberalization, even in advance of WTO commitments, has translated into a profound crisis in the countryside. Indian economist Utsa Patnaik has described the calamity as “a collapse in rural livelihoods and incomes” owing to the steep fall in the prices of farm products. Along with this has come a rapid decline in consumption of food grains, with the average Indian family of four consuming 76 kg less in 2003 compared to 1998 and 88 kg less than a decade earlier. The state of Andra Pradesh, which has become a byword for agrarian distress owing to trade liberalization, saw a catastrophic rise in farmers’ suicides from 233 in 1998 to over 2,600 in 2002. One estimate is that some 100,000 farmers in India have taken their lives owing to collapsing prices stemming from rising imports.

It is generally feared that WTO would impact adversely the economies of developing countries like Pakistan. Developing countries are concerned with the difficulties of non-implementation of the existing WTO Agreements and objectives and timetable of the current negotiations on agriculture, services and market access. It appears that the developing countries4 would be facing more international uncertainties and additional hardships in integrating their economies with the global economy. However, countries which accept these challenges and make necessary changes will benefit from the WTO agreements. Unfortunately Pakistan has not been able to raise awareness and understanding about WTO among the general public, industrialists especially the small and medium enterprises and amongst the farmers especially the small farmers. In a recent study conducted by PIDE5, it was found out that only 4 percent of general public, 46 percent of exporters and 38 percent of the members of the business community were aware of the WTO issues and even those who were aware had only rudimentary knowledge of the issues involved.

The resistance to the new regime so opposed to the interests of small farmers has come from several sectors. At the international level, trade liberalization and other anti-agriculture policies led to the formation of two blocs of developing countries: the Group of 20 and the Group of 33. The G-20 put the developed countries on notice that, unless they significantly reduced unfair domestic support for agriculture, there would be no more concessions on market access. The G-33 demanded exemptions from tariff liberalization for certain products considered vital to agricultural production and employment (special products or SPs). They also wanted the right to raise tariffs and resort to other measures — special safeguard mechanisms (SSMs) — to protect their products from surges of agricultural imports. When the EU and the United States refused to compromise on these issues, the WTO’s Fifth Ministerial Meeting in Cancun in 2003 collapsed.

The Ministerial Declaration of the Sixth Ministerial Meeting of the WTO in Hong Kong in December 2005 recognized the right of developing countries to designate SPs and institute SSMs. However, the U.S. backtracking on this commitment as well as its refusal to significantly reduce its domestic subsidies led to the collapse of the Doha Round of negotiations in July 2006. Developing countries simply could not provoke more discontent among their peasant populations by opening their markets even more in exchange for cosmetic reductions in the massive EU and U.S. agricultural subsidies.

The opposition to GE-based agriculture has created a powerful link between farmers and consumers who are angry at corporations for marketing genetically modified commodities without proper labeling, thus denying consumers a choice. In the European Union, a solid alliance of farmers, consumers, and environmentalists prevented the import of GE-modified products from the United States for several years. Although the EU has cautiously allowed in a few GE imports since 2004, 54% of European consumers continue to think GE food is ”dangerous.” Opposition to other harmful processes such as food irradiation has also contributed to the tightening of ties between farmers and consumers, large numbers of whom now think that public health and environmental impact should be more important determinants of consumer behavior than price.

More and more people are beginning to realize that local production and culinary traditions are intimately related, and that this relationship is threatened by corporate control of food production, processing, marketing, and consumption. This is why Jose Bove’s justification for dismantling a MacDonald’s resonated widely in Asia: “When we said we would protest by dismantling the half-built McDonald’s in our town, everybody understood why — the symbolism was so strong. It was for proper food against malbouffe [awful standardized food], agricultural workers against multinationals. The extreme right and other nationalists tried to make out it was anti-Americanism, but the vast majority knew it was no such thing. It was a protest against a form of production that wants to dominate the world.”

Many economists, technocrats, policymakers, and urban intellectuals have long viewed small farmers as a doomed class. Once regarded as passive objects to be manipulated by elites, they are now resisting the capitalist, socialist, and developmentalist paradigms that would consign them to ruin. They have become what Karl Marx described as a politically conscious “class-for-itself.” And even as peasants refuse to “go gently into that good night,” to borrow a line from Dylan Thomas, developments in the 21st century are revealing traditional pro-development visions to be deeply flawed. The escalating protests of peasant groups such as Via Campesina, are not a return to the past. As environmental crises multiply and the social dysfunctions of urban-industrial life pile up, the farmers’ movement has relevance not only to peasants but to everyone who is threatened by the catastrophic consequences of obsolete modernist paradigms for organizing production, community, and life.

Biofuels

Asif Maqbool

 Muhammad Rasheed

Biofuels are derived from biomass (typically plant-based organic matter). Although most biomass can be burned to release energy (e.g. burning wood), it cannot for example be burned in an engine to power a car. It must first be transformed into a liquid fuel. It may be noted that biofuels need not necessarily be liquid in nature – for example, methane gas from animal dung. Biofuels and fossil fuels are different from each other. On one hand, biofuel is essentially either carbohydrate or fatty acid in nature, captured by plants from the sun’s rays through photosynthesis. On the other hand, if biomass is compressed at huge pressure over great period of time beneath the earth’s surface, the result will be hydrocarbon-based fossil fuels. Hydrocarbon based fossil fuels represent a much denser energy source than carbohydrate or fatty acid based biofuel. For instance, one kilo of coal may contain the same amount of energy as up to four kilos of wood.

Secondly, whereas fossil fuels will run out, biofuels are potentially renewable – as long as we continue to grow and refine biomass at the same rate that we consume it. Thirdly, when fossil fuels are burned, we return to the atmosphere carbon that was captured by generation upon generation of plants over millions of years and kept locked under the ground in the form of hydrocarbons. Whereas when we burn biofuels, the carbon that is released back into the atmosphere is actually the carbon from the present generation of plants.

Currently, the two most important biofuels are bioethanol and biodiesel. There are various biofuels produced from different feed stocks. Bioethanol is simply common alcohol, distilled from sugar and it is typically blended with petrol for vehicle fuel in proportions up to 25 percent without the need for engine modification, or alternatively, can be used to run specially designed cars. Biodiesel is refined from vegetable oils, animal fats or recycled cooking oil and can be used in diesel engines.

‘Second generation’ refers to production methods still in the research and development (R&D) phase that will hopefully yield biofuels that are more energy and cost efficient.

Much hope is attached to these technologies, which should bring a number of advantages including greater energy efficiency and environmental benefits, and a broader base of potential biomass. These technologies will have lower feedstock costs than first generation ones, but will be much more capital intensive, requiring large production facilities to be economically viable. It is unclear when exactly these technologies will become commercial, but 2015 is often mooted as a possible date. Except a few petroleum rich countries, all other countries across the world are facing oil deficit. As the fossil fuel resources are finite, search for alternative mainly for transportation fuel is continuing all over the world. It is in this context that development of biofuels as an alternative and renewable source of energy assumes importance. On this pretext, biofuel is also touted as a key instrument for achieving energy security.

The second rationale is that biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel are environment friendly and therefore will help to conform to the stricter emission and help fight climate change.

Particularly in the developing countries, besides the two rationales of energy security and climate security, the third rationale offered is the prospect of rural development. As biofuels are derived from agricultural produce, the huge demand for biofuels may also create opportunities for enhanced employment and income for farmers.

Biofuels are being promoted as a source of renewable energy and a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However studies say that deforestation (forest clearing) caused by expanding soya and palm oil plantations is leading to increased carbon dioxide emissions. FAO estimates that 1.6 billion tones or 25 to 30 percent of the greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere each year comes from deforestation, particularly in South East Asia and South America, where rainforest is cleared to make way for palm oil or soy plantations. Forested tropical peat lands in South East Asia contain at least 42,000 mega tonnes of soil carbon, which can be released into the atmosphere by drainage or fires associated with plantation development. Current emissions from peat lands make up nearly eight percent of global emissions, almost 90 percent of which is attributable to Indonesia. Because rainforests are natural carbon sinks, deforestation increases the emissions associated with biofuel production. For example, one study finds that one hectare of land in Brazil can save 13 tonnes of CO2 each year if it is planted with sugarcane to make bioethanol. But if natural forests were allowed to regenerate on the same hectare of land, this would absorb 20 tonnes of CO2 every year.

In Europe and America, the preferred option of biofuel is agricultural products. According to an IMF report, the use of corn for ethanol production in the US and their demand for soybean oil has increased world food prices by about 10 percent. Moreover, the price of maize rose by 23 percent in 2000 and by 50 percent over the past two years largely because of US ethanol programme.  

The US is pushing the third world nations to go in for biofuel production so that their energy needs are met at the expense of plundering other’s resources. In Mexico, there have been riots because of 100 percent rise in prices of tortillas in the year 2007 on account of diversion of corn for producing biofuels.

Representatives of organizations and social movements from Brazil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Columbia, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic in a declaration titled “Full Tanks at the Cost of Empty Stomachs” wrote, “The current model of production of biofuel is sustained by the same elements that have always caused the oppression of our people’s territory, of natural resources and labour force.” The picture on the rural opportunities front is not encouraging either. Feedstock cultivation in developing countries can also have negative implications for poverty and suffering owing to abuse of land rights, environmental destruction and abusive labour standards.

FAO suggests that if developing countries can reap the benefits of biofuel production, and if those benefits reach the poor, it will help promote rural development. Good intention, but easier said than done. Those who have been long witness to the government apathy to poor farmers and rural development would agree that such conditional recommendations have yielded very limited benefits to rural Pakistan. The biofuel policy makers need to clearly outline, in concrete and specific terms, what are the benefits from biofuel and how will they benefit the poor.

The structurally low prices of agricultural goods for the last 10 years were considered a bane for the Pakistan agriculture, threatening livelihood and development prospects. But when the prices swung upwards last year, benefits have still not reached small farmers and wage earners, a vast majority of who are women. Unfortunately, high agricultural commodity prices are already having a negative impact on developing countries that are highly dependent on imports to meet their food requirements. Particularly at risk are poor urban consumers and poor net food buyers in rural areas. Many of the world’s poor spend more than half of their incomes on food. This double-edged price policy dilemma is posing a serious challenge to the policy makers because either way, it is the farmers and agricultural workers who are eventually left high and dry.

What is the way out? It is argued that growing demand for biofuels and the resulting higher agricultural commodity prices may offer important opportunities for enhanced income and employment in rural India, but do we have the institutional and regulatory mechanisms in place to ensure equitable distribution of benefits from growth? On the other hand, for lack of such mechanisms, abandoning the very idea of biofuels would tantamount to throwing the baby with the bath water.

This issue of Trading Up highlights the complex debates around biofuels, discusses the opportunities and risks associated and thereby seeks to contribute to opinion building on the same. The risks emerging from biofuel must be made public and should be adequately addressed in formulating the plan, policy and the required prudent institutional and regulatory mechanisms.

DEVELOPEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES

• Muhammad Rasheed
• Asif Maqbool
• Naeem Qasim

Population is generally dubbed as ‘the wealth of poor’. The notion is true partly because population is considered as burden, but it is full of potential to change the whole scenario provided it is utilized in an effective way. Investment for human capital formation must be made mandatory for developing world if they are to find an escape from the whirlpool of deprivation and degradation into which they are sucked. 

Human resources forming an important component of national wealth. Human capital implies resources developed in health care environment through general and specialized education relating to any discipline, contributing to socio-economic development of individual and country as a whole.  Greater the percentage of human capital, faster will be the economic growth rate and greatest socio-economic well being of the people.

Unfortunately in almost all the developing countries including Pakistan, due to income inequalities, the component of raw labor dominates in their total human wealth. Despite economic turn around in recent years, efforts directed towards halting growing poverty totally failed and the human development gap has become widely negative. Resultantly, raw labor continues to pervade the country’s human resources and this constant link between income inequalities and low pace of human development has become a vicious circle.

Human resource development is the progression of making and shaping an ordinary person into productive resource particularly in rural areas so as to mitigate poverty via accelerating agricultural growth. It encompasses aspects of awareness raising, education and training, attitude change, confidence building, participation in decision making and action. It’s most important goal is to maximize people’s hidden potential to contribute to development by participating fully in all productive activities. However, for some educators and development planners Human Resource Development is an end in itself and its goal should be realizing human potential and developing individual self-reliance.

Pakistan is a poor agricultural country having a population of 150 Million, facing a huge burden of foreign and domestic debt. Its real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate is 6.6 percent per annum and there is need to increase economic growth in order to overcome the problem of poverty. So there is a great need of human resource development in agriculture sector because this is a major contributing sector. The broader classification of the sustainable development of human resources includes; provision of education (general as well as technical) with quality at all levels and health.

Education is an essential tool for developing human resources and a necessary ingredient for sustainable socio-economic growth. Investment in education contributes to the accumulation of human capital, which is essential for higher income and sustained economic growth. It was concluded in a study that a farmer with a minimum of four years of education was able to increase his production by an average of 8.7 percent.  Illiteracy is a major obstacle to development in general and rural areas in particular. The continuously increasing commercialization of agriculture has made it a job of highly skilled and educated person having the ability to envisage and can take right decisions at right time and is technically equipped to handle agriculture business on scientific basis.

With the emergence of the world trade organization (WTO), Pakistan can compete in free trade only with the dynamic changes in agriculture sector. So, there is a dire need to train the manpower especially in agriculture sector according to the requirement.  According to Asian Development Bank (1990), on job training in India raised the labor productivity by 7 percent.  In Pakistan with vocational training, workers in industrial sector in 1986 were found to be three times more productive than their counter-parts in agriculture sector with less or no education.

Health is vital too for the proper grooming of an individual, but is not ensured in our case especially if we look towards rural areas. A healthy man will be capable of being trained according to the requirement. A recent survey has reflected that the bread winners in the poor families on the average lose 80 to 90 working days in a year because of illness. This means not only a 20 percent reduction in families meager income, but additional expenditure on treatment, often require sale of an animal or other assets the family may have. But in terms of health facilities provision to the general public we are much lacking behind the requirement as total number of hospitals, dispensaries, rural health center and basic health units in Pakistan are far less then needed. Health provision in terms of number of doctors per person is still too low.

Social development and absolute poverty are affected by a number of likely factors like economic growths, level of income, access to multiple components of social services like health, education, family planning, nutrition, water and sanitation. Nothing can be achieved without educational provision at all levels and ensuring proper health facilities. And these are basically the inducer towards greater efficiently and productivity. Without maintaining a good health status and education, we cannot even maintain the existing status of economic activities.

NGO’S Role in Developing Countries

• Muhammad Rasheed
• Asif Maqbool
• Naeem Qasim

In Pakistan, NGOs are a relatively new phenomenon. The term is usually applied to organizations engaged in social uplift activities of some sort, and especially the provision of services traditionally considered to be a part of the government's preserve. NGOs have asserted themselves as a third party in the traditional relationship between the State and civilian society, where the latter is represented by political parties. The growing recognition of the effectiveness of NGOs in micro-level development has enabled them over the years to advocate an alternative development strategy. Korten (1989) distinguishes between four generations of NGOs which have been involved in: 

• Relief and welfare;
• Small-scale, self-reliant local development;
• Sustainable systems development;
• Information and networking for people's empowerment.

The success of NGOs depended in the existence of what Rumansara (1990) called "the political space", i.e., the social space in which people are given more opportunity to take part in the decision-making process and are no more longer dominated by bureaucrats, the State or the ruling regime. In areas where such possibilities exist, NGOs can acquire the ability to influence policy formulation and reform. There are two main paths through which that can be done: either in a participatory role by replicating more widely the experience of successful programmes at the micro-level, or in an advocacy role by influencing those in authority to make macro decisions. 

NGOs can provide an important supplement to the public sector at low cost, extend the outreach of government services and amplify the coverage of, for example, agricultural extension services. SRSC and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme are good examples in that regard. NGOs have collaborated with the government in preparing the NCS, collected and provided micro-level information to the government and multilateral agencies, and entered into negotiations with the government and with NGOs of the developed countries over the issues that divide North and South. Therefore NGOs are becoming an important force which the government must take into full account. 

NWFP is characterized by tribal and feudal norms and traditions. Before British rule and independence, self-help and mutual cooperation were the only ways to endure life in an area with tough physical environmental conditions and little means of communication. Land and other natural resources were the only means of subsistence, complemented with modest internal and external trade. The people had to cooperate in digging irrigation channels and logging the forests. Social life was also centred around the community rather then the individual. Weddings, funerals and other festivals were occasions when the entire community pooled its resources in participation. Agricultural and forestry were also community activities, irrespective of ownership status. The management of common resources was also undertaken by the community itself. Even dealing with cases where rules were violated was a community effort; for example, in Chitral a man caught felling a tree without prior permission would have been punished by having to sacrifice a goat or other animal which would be eaten by the rest of the village. It was only with the occupation of the subcontinent by the British in the eighteenth century that led to the government assuming a paternalistic role, resulting in increased dependency on the State. 

That situation continued after the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Bureaucratic control over public funds for development made them vulnerable to abuse and caused an inequitable distribution of benefits. Together with political instability and fragmented policies, the situation resulted in the erosion of public trust in State mechanisms and increasing corruption. The quality of life and the provision of basic services to the general public remained questionable. Consequently, there was a renewed interest in self-help initiatives in sustainable development with the help of NGOs, community-based organizations (CBOs), village organizations (VOs) and other private sector organizations. 

Joint communal work is now taking on new shapes as a result of the influence of external factors. The motivation of receiving funds from the donors and aid-giving agencies is an important factor for in the formation of NGOs/CBOs for community work. Those NGOs and societies have to register under a variety of laws such as: the Companies Ordinance, 1984, section 42; the Society Registration Act, 1860; the Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies Act, 1961; the Trust Act, 1882; and the Charitable Endowment Act, 1890; the Provincial Water Users Association Ordinance and Cooperative Societies Act, 1925 (Provincial National Conservation Strategy, 1991). The registration of NGOs, CBOs and VOs under any of the above laws is done at the provincial level. 

Community participation in NWFP began in the 1980s when forestry and integrated development projects helped to organize village groups that would play a role in meeting project development goals. At present, in NWFP several such programmes and projects exist which are operating through community organizations, either by helping to create new projects or reactivate existing ones. The CBOs and VOs are playing a significant role in the successful implementation of those programmes and projects. NGOs formed in 1990s also work with CBOs and VOs, and play an important role in their respective fields. They are catalysts for change and are a source of empowerment for the local communities. They are very effective in advocacy, awareness raising and the highlighting of human rights issues. In addition, they sometimes act as a check on ill-conceived government policies. The most important international, national and local NGOs working in NWFP include:. 

• IUCN, which is working for advocacy, environmental conservation and development;
• The World Wildlife Fund, which is working in the field of wildlife, national parks and protected areas;
• The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, which working in Chitral and northern areas of Pakistan in the field of agriculture, education, environment, income generation, institution building and women in development;
• The Sarhad Rural Support Corporation (SRSC) working in Charsadda, Kohat, Karak, Mansehra Abbottabad and Haripur districts in the field of agriculture, health, institution building, welfare and women in development;
• Khwendo Kor, working in Nowshera, Peshawar, and Swat in the fields of education, family planning, health, income generation, nursery raising and women in development;
• The Pak-German Integrated Rural Development Project, which is working in Mardan and Swabi on integrated development;
• The Sungi Development Foundation, which is working in Abbottabad, Haripur, Manshera and Battagram on integrated development;
• Ghazi-Barotha Traqeiyati Idara, which is working in the Ghazi, Swabi and Attock areas on advocacy, resettlement and development for the Ghazi-Barotha Project;
• The Pakistan Environmental Protection Foundation, which is working on awareness raising, sanitation and afforestation;
• Action Aid, which is working in Kalinger/Haripur in the field of rural development;
• The Aurat Foundation, which is working throughout the whole province in the fields of women in development and related issues;
• The Human Resource Management and Development Centre, which is operating in Peshawar in the field of environment;
• The Shewa Educated Social Welfare Association, which is working in Swabi on integrated development;
• The Da Lass Gul Welfare Programme, which is working in Peshawar, Nowshera, Swabi and the Khyber Agency in the field of education;
• The Gunyar youth welfare organization, which is working for the improvement of the local environment in the villages of Swat District.

Weaknesses and problems of non-governmental organizations 

NGOs are not yet fully mature and suffer from a lack of clarity in their mission and objectives, which leads to them working in too many different fields. Some also experience difficulties in getting donor support. In NWFP the NGOs are predominantly donor-dependent, and most of them lack experienced and skilled managers mainly because of a lack of funds. Therefore, a strategy is needed to outline the ways and means through which the NGOs and CBOs/VOs can play their part in the sustainable development of the province. The strategy will become an integral part of SPCS and hence will provide a platform for the NGOs, CBOs and VOs to become a part of the overall development process in NWFP. To date, the Social Welfare Department is the only government department providing support to NGOs, mostly in the form of small grants. The limited funds, bureaucratic procedures and lack of institutional capacity at the field level has rendered the service by the Department virtually ineffective. Even if it worked, it would naturally focus on social welfare problems with little or no attention being paid to environmental and development issues. SPCS has co-facilitated the development of an alliance among NGOs in NWFP, called the Sarhad NGOs Ittehad, which is an important step toward NGO networking. SPCS envisages support for its replication at the local level. That will increase their role in networking and public decision-making.

Background:PakistanNonGovernment Organization Support Program

Program Goals and Tasks

The goal of this program is to move toward poverty eradication and promote sustainable development in Pakistan by building civil society's capacity to create structural conditions for democratic development and good governance.

The task is to initiate participatory development approaches where people assume the central position at all levels in development projects, as an alternative to the top-down social welfare and charity approaches.

The participatory development or empowerment approach focuses on building the capacities of civil society communities to serve their own needs. It has been successfully used in projects such as the internationally renowned Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi. The brainchild of Dr. Aktar Hameed Khan, this community development program allowed communities in the urban slums to overcome problems of sanitation, housing, health, education and employment.

SAP Pakistan wants to help build a democratic society which includes the marginalized and the vulnerable in informing public policy. The Canadian International Development Agency and South Asia Partnership Canada began a partnership 15 years ago and result in the creation of South Asia Partnership Pakistan, an independent non-government organization in Pakistan that "trains the trainers" with an array of civil society organizations. South Asia Partnership Pakistan today has a network of over 2,000 community-based organizations involved in political education for a democratic society that respects human rights and gender equity. This program benefits participating communities by helping them become capable of planning and implementing sustainable development initiatives and accessing necessary resources.

Supporting Pakistan NGOs: Phase One

Registered in 1989, SAP Pakistan arrived in the wake of General Zia-ul-Haq's military dictatorship and into a fragile democracy. For 11 years, the dictatorship had shrunk institutions, suspended democratic discourse, seen the emergence of fundamentalist forces in the country, and left Pakistan civil society in a state of total disarray.

When the program began, the goal was to improve the quality of life of the poorest segments of the population by funding community-based projects. As SAP Pakistan learned more about the nature of local non-governmental and community-based organisations (CBOs), it was evident that most of these organisations were still in their formative phase. Few had sufficient institutional capacity to plan and undertake viable community development projects and they needed help in developing their capabilities in project planning and management. So SAP Pakistan adapted to this need.

Consequently, in 1991, SAP Pakistan revised its program strategy and shifted its focus from a project funding to a capacity-building organisation dedicated to promoting democracy, equality, social justice and tolerance in society. The ultimate goal was to strengthen the capacities of these fledgling organizations to become catalysts for sustainable and democratic development in their communities and advocates for supportive policies and programs. The new approach emphasised training, the formation of networks and partnerships, and the implementation of long-term community organisations. SAP Pakistan designed its Resource Development Program to create a strong body of activists drawn from their local communities and committed to participatory development methods.

A strong emphasis was placed on increasing community understanding of issues affecting people's lives, SAP Pakistan started to promote social activism by linking micro development issues with macro development problems. Linking poverty to human rights, democratisation, and good governance became part of a myriad of challenges in strengthening civil society.

When the Government of Pakistan launched the Social Action Program in 1993, which acknowledged the need to transfer responsibility for development initiatives to local NGOs/CBOs, SAP Pakistan was poised to fill some of this gap as historically, Pakistan did not had a network of mature NGOs/CBOs with the ability to design and implement strong development projects in the social sector.

Supporting Pakistan's NGOs: Phase Two

In Phase Two of the program, from 1995 to 2003, SAP Pakistan delivers an integrated program of capacity building support to organizations through training, project partnership and advocacy.

• A 12 month training program provides NGOs/CBOs with a theoretical orientation of civil society and alternative development participatory processes, including workshops in gender and development, human resource development and financial management.
• It implements targeted community development projects (link to projects) with CBOs/NGOs in Pakistan, supported by Canadian partner NGOs/CBOs through SAP Canada. Approximately half of its community development programs address the needs of women through its partnership program division and a significant amount of informal learning takes place in the community about gender equality.
• Fostering CBO/NGO networking and collaboration, and linking these organisations to government and advocacy organizations.
• Developing provincial and national networks capable of training additional organisations and communities has created a multiplier effect.

This program has provided the platform for SAP Pakistan to become a respected leader in the NGO community, particularly in terms of mobilizing the country's first national NGO network, the NGO Forum, and its engagement in dialogue and advocacy with the Government of Pakistan on policy and legislation issues.

SAP Pakistan actively and strategically promotes women's issues and gender equality in all its activities and actively collaborates with women's rights groups on women's human rights, economic empowerment and access to social services. Over half of its community development programs address the needs of women through its partnership program division and a significant amount of informal learning takes place in the community about gender equality. Depending on the geographic location, programs are either run by women or for women beneficiaries.

Recently, SAP Pakistan has implemented a "Women in Politics Program" promoting women as political leaders at the local level as a result of the Local Governance Reforms and Devolution.

The Canadian linkage and partnership development program of the PNSP aims to increase Canadian awareness and support of development issues in Pakistan using a three-pronged approach:

• development education, foster dialogues, exchanges and learning to inform Canadians on gender equity, good governance, social justice and the promotion of all human rights, drawing on SAP Pakistan's experience in the field.
• partnership development, focusing on building linkages, understanding, solidarity, as well as, project support for Canadian and Pakistani organisations working for social change.
• NGO consultation held with both Canadian and Pakistani partners in Pakistan.

Through regular seminars, workshops, and brown bag lunches, the development education component of the PNSP has focused on engaging a diverse group of organisations in Pakistani development issues: NGOs, research and academic institutions, media, South Asian community organisations and ordinary Canadians. The PNSP also participates in SAP Canada's South Asian regional forums by providing a Pakistan perspective on important sustainable development issues, highlighting issues to the attention of policymakers and NGOs for possible programming.

While local governments are primarily responsible for the provision of basic services, their revenues have not kept up with population and economic growth. The Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi, is held up as one of the best examples of NGO-led development in an urban area. Known as one of the most successful NGO sanitation provision projects, this program has helped over one million people to improve sanitation since its inception in 1980.

Pakistan's Social Action Program

In 1993, the Government of Pakistan (GOP), acknowledging the poor social status of its citizens, initiated the Social Action Program (SAP) to improve basic social services-elementary education, primary health care, population welfare, and rural water supply and sanitation.

An aid consortium including Asian Development Bank (ADB), (British) Department for International Development (DFID), the Netherlands Government and the World Bank supported the first phase of the Social Action Plan (1993-1997), and were joined by European Union in the second phase (1997-2002).

The first phase aimed to increase sector financing and monitoring and evaluation, while the second phase, based on lessons learnt in the first phase, placed more emphasis on policy development, governance, and capacity building.

The SAP was successful in terms of putting the social sector on the priority agenda of the federal and provincial governments, building capacity at these levels, and improving planning and evaluation. The SAP helped increase girl's education, and health and family planning services, often in combination with private services.

Due to the growing macroeconomic crisis, public expenditure on education, health, and population declined from 2.7 percent of GDP in the mid-1990s to 2.1 percent of GDP in 2001. The GOP and external assistance agencies did not fully anticipate the serious and entrenched neglect of public social services and underestimated difficulties in improving implementation and efficiency. Social sector development requires a social transformation and a radical change in the way social services are managed, with full recognition of the roles of communities and the private sector.

Pakistan's performance with regard to social development has been disappointing. While health and population indicators showed some improvement, education indicators stagnated. There was some reduction in the gender gap in education, but no progress was made in reducing the urban-rural gap. Because of weak governance and declining public expenditures, the SAP failed to achieve the targeted improvements in the social indicators.

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Local Governance Reforms and Devolution

The military government of General Pervaz Mussarraf initiated a number of reforms to address governance problems and long-standing structural challenges. On the political side, the Devolution Plan announced in March 2000, is a fundamental reform. It aims to replace the existing highly centralized and control-oriented government with a three-tiered local government system that institutes "people-centred, rights and responsibility-based, and service oriented" government structures.

The elected local governments took power on August 14, 2001 in over 100 districts in the four provinces. Local elections were held over a six-month period on a non-party basis, with full adult suffrage.

The Local Government Ordinance promulgated on 14 August 2001 provides for three levels of local government, each with a governing council:

1. district governments (107);
2. tehsils (about three per district); and
3. union councils (about 20-30 per tehsil), which comprise villages/urban wards.

Significantly, thirty-three percent of seats are reserved for women at all three levels of local government, and additional seats are reserved for peasants, workers, and minorities. The majority of elected council heads (nazims) and deputy heads (naib nazims) may belong to local influential families, but it is also significant that nearly 50 percent of councillors belong to disadvantaged sections of society, women, peasants, and workers.

Devolution, first from provincial to elected local governments, and then from the federal to provincial level, will bring fundamental changes to how all public services are planned, financed, and managed. The bulk of basic poverty-focused services, for health, education, agriculture, water, and natural resource management have been devolved to district and lower local governments. Provinces, once predominantly responsible for service delivery, will assume new responsibilities to support and supervise the performance of local governments, not as administrative appendages of the provincial bureaucracy, but as independent corporate bodies accountable to the electorate through political leaders.

In addition to elected councils, the Local Government Ordinance 2001 provided a number of institutionalised opportunities for citizens to participate in council affairs. Citizen community boards, and public safety and justice committees were expected to monitor local government activities. Citizen community boards were also empowered to prioritise investments for up to 50 percent of the local development budget for basic infrastructure and services. Unfortunately, the new government has postponed the formation of citizen community boards, which would have provided a platform for civil society to engage.

Public safety commissions at district, provincial, and national levels, introduced by this Government under amendments to the Police Act of 1861, offer new possibilities to depoliticise the police and to increase their accountability to citizens.

Role of NGOs in Rural development through training in Skills and trades

Besides public sector's development programmes for rural development, the private sector/NGOs are also being encouraged for enhancing the pace of rural development in the country . particularly through innovative participatory approaches. The Agha Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) and National Rural Support Programme are the two main non-governmental organizations which have undertaken various innovative uplift schemes/programmes for the rural areas in Pakistan. Their activities are briefly discussed as under:-

Aga Khan Rural Support Programme

The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme(AKRSP) is private, non-profit NGO, established by the Aga Khan Foundation with the assistance of foreign donor agencies and Aga Khan Foundation itself, It started its activities in December , 1982 initially in the villages of Gilgit and Ghizer districts of the Northern Areas to improve quality of life of the villages in programme area. In 1986, the programme was extended and replicated in the Chitral district of the NWFP and the districts of Skardu and Ganchey of the Northern Areas. The AKRSP since its beginning focussed on enhancing incomes and quality of life of the people of the programme area. On entering into its new five year phase ,1997-2001, the AKRSP's objectives have been further clarified to reflect the development context of the Northern Areas and Chitral, Encompassing the institutional and economic development issues, the two major objectives of the new phase are :-

i)Promotion of local institutions to be the part of an effective and sustainable system for broad-based rural development, and

Increase average per capita incomes to levels, comparable to that of the rest of the country.

Major achievements of the AKRSP by the end of 1998 are listed below.

More than 3500 village organizations and 2300 women's organizations have been formed in the Programme Area.

Approximately 2000 infrastructure schemes have been initiated. Of which, 1700 have been completed. these projects have collectively benefitted more than 100,000 households in the Programme Area. 55000 kanals of new land has been brought under cultivation , as a result of investment in the irrigation schemes.

More than 300,000 kilograms of improved cereal seed, 150,000 kilograms of fodder seed, and 200,000 kilograms of improved potato seed have been supplied to small local farmers. In addition, over 1 million fruit trees had been distributed. Also 3500 community members , both male and female have been trained, as agricultural specialists.

Around 5000 cross-breed cattle have been supplied to local populations. 240 brooding centres had been established , and 600,000 poultry chicks supplied to these brooding centres. Around 5000 male and female livestock and poultry specialists have been trained.

Some 15 million forest plants have been provided to communities in Northern Pakistan, while village organizations themselves have planted 8 million trees established 1500 forest nurseries, and 1300 village forestry specialists trained.

A big vegetable seed production venture has been started in Gilgit, through a system of contract farmers. A major wool spinning and weaving project. primarily benefiting women has also been started in Chitral. Over 2000 male village specialists and 1000 female specialists have been trained for various enterprise sectors.

National Rural Support Programme

The National Rural Support programme (NRSP), has been registered as a Limited Company since November, 1991 with its headquarter in Islamabad. The objective of the NRSP is to foster a country-wide network of community organizations at the grassroots level and enable them to plan, manage and implement their development plans at their own. The ultimate goal of the NRSP is to reduce intensity of poverty and improve rural people's quality of life.

The NRSP is the largest private non-profit national development organization in the country, operating in twenty one districts of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir in some of the biggest partnerships, involving the government, NGOs, banks and donors. it has the following 5 major fields of operation.

Human Resource Development

Rural Credit and enterprise Development

Natural Resource Management

Physical Infrastructure and technology Development.

Social Sector Services.