By: Dr. Khushbakht Zahid
Agriculture is believed to be the economic backbone of the AJK. In the current scenario of inflation reduced the purchasing power of rural poor households, problems in agriculture production and marketing in the state have further aggravated the rural livelihood as well as jeopardized state food security. Food security for growing population of AJK is becoming great challenge as cultivated land is limited; the only option left is to increase the productivity of land. In Azad Kashmir society is predominantly agrarian with 70 percent population living in rural areas and unemployment rate is 10.57%. Although contribution of farm income is low around 20% of household income. As a result, farmers are losing their interest in farming. Making agriculture a profitable activity it should be sustained and refined in such a way that it becomes profitable and source of income for educated unemployed youth. In this region where agriculture is backbones of economy with no industrial base there is dire need to focus on agriculture self-sufficiency and sustainability s. In this territory farmers are producing below the optimal level of production with no market orientation. There is a need to identify such problems in this sector so that a comprehensive policy and action plans could be formulated to address these problems for enhancement of productivity and marketing mechanism. Keeping this objective Dr Khush Bukhat Zahid from agriculture department won and completed project sponsored by research on social transformation and sustainable development RASTA PIDE under planning commission of Pakistan for the year 2022.This study help in devising workable plan to achieve sustainable development goal 2 that is zero hunger. To end hunger, fulfill the nutrition need and food security, this study assesses the factors that cause low productivity and less market participation by conducting an interview from different stakeholders relative to this sector including farmers and by accompanying farm survey from all the districts of AJK. Econometric analysis was done to interpret the results. The policy recommendations are suggested based on available data analysis, themes, and suggestions. The study suggested that farmers in this region are 58 percent efficient in production, indicating that sample farmers might achieve the maximum production level by raising their efficiency to 42 percentage point by suitable policy targets. Marketing position is also not satisfactory. Farmers contribution in market was less, 47 percent of farmers have less than 50 percent market participation and 20 percent did not participate in market. Only remaining 33 percent have market participation greater than 50 percent. The positive impact of inputs on output, indicated that measures to enhance input availability would be beneficial, or the fact that higher traction power increases efficiency may indicate the need for private-public partnerships to boost power availability. Similarly, the positive role of training in increasing market participation may imply that some training programmes are beneficial. Improve in infrastructure by constructing local markets, roads and storage houses also positively contributed toward market participation. To this purpose, the study demonstrates that farm-level inputs and market accessibility factors have a significant impact on agricultural productivity and market participation. The findings also revealed that, in addition to market accessibility factors, production efficiency—technical efficiencies play a substantial impact in influencing market participation levels, with a positive coefficient of 1.39. There is a room to increase efficiency level by 42 percent. Following steps are needed to control the effects of farm inputs on production, it should be available to every farmer timely and in good quality and quantity. Socioeconomic factors particularly influenced farm performance. Education and agriculture skills along with training should create awareness and interest so that more educated people are involved in agriculture. Innovative machines should improve the management capabilities of the agricultural community and, thus, enhance technical efficiency and market participation, such as by designing and promoting infrastructure support; road, market, storage and warehouse, and transport facilities.
Create off-farm employment and investment opportunity to help extremely inefficient farmers to start agro-related enterprises.
Increase the size of the farm by bringing more land under cultivation. Programs that encourage landowners to utilize waste lands should be introduced.
Poor monitoring mechanisms was noted. To evaluate the impact of development schemes, advisory support systems, monitoring, and evaluation mechanisms can assist in reorganizing schemes to achieve desired goals.
Credit and short-term loan have a significant impact on market participation, using the loan to convert traditional agriculture to modern commercial farming and hence market participation.
Strategies need to be devised to equip farmers with marketing skills and opportunities so that their products can reach the market at a lower cost and in less time.
Higher expected return encourages entrants to the market and greater volume sales for those capable of generating marketable surpluses. Farmers’ access to market pricing systems and information is very important for enhancing agricultural sector economic output.
Agricultural extension should be market oriented. Reorganize the agricultural extension system to meet the challenges of market, because extension agents are the ones who are in close contact with community, they should be well equipped with update information about marketing and provide good training to improve their management skills under the changing environment.
The crops are already under water stress, and a rise in temperature would increase the plants’ water demand. As a result, increasing water storage capacity in the region is critical for ensuring agricultural production system sustainability and market participation.
The study’s findings also point to the notion that increasing production efficiencies increases market participation. As a result, greater infrastructure and farmer-friendly policies are required to remove input and output market inefficiencies, lowering production costs, and making the sector more competitive.
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