Addressing Bottlenecks to Enhancing Agricultural Productivity in Pakistan: Challenges and Solutions
Panel Discussion
About the Event
Pakistan, with its predominantly agrarian economy, faces significant challenges in boosting agricultural productivity to meet the growing demands of its population. Despite immense potential and favourable climatic conditions, there exist several bottlenecks that hinder the progress of the agricultural sector. This research seminar aims to shed light on the major obstacles impeding agricultural productivity in Pakistan and explore potential solutions for sustainable agricultural growth. By delving into the socio-economic, technological, and policy-related aspects, this discussion will provide valuable insights for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders in devising effective strategies for overcoming these bottlenecks.
Panellists can contribute to one or more of the following sub-themes:
Policy and Governance Challenges
Water Management and Irrigation Systems
Access to Quality Seeds and Improved Crop Varieties
Agricultural Credit and Financing
Mechanisation and Machinery
Knowledge and Extension Services
Modernising Outdated Farming Practices
Panellists can contribute to one or more of the following sub-themes:
Policy and Governance Challenges
Water Management and Irrigation Systems
Access to Quality Seeds and Improved Crop Varieties
Agricultural Credit and Financing
Mechanisation and Machinery
Knowledge and Extension Services
Modernising Outdated Farming Practices
Speakers
| Name | Title | Biography |
|---|---|---|
| Adeel Shafqat | Country Director, Precision Development (PxD) | Adeel Shafqat is the country director Precision Development, CERP. As a country director, he leads the work on their advisory services for over 1.3 million smallholder farmers in Punjab in collaboration with the Agriculture Department. He is a Public Policy and Public Financial Management (PFM) expert and an academic at the Lahore School of Economics. Adeel was one of the earliest members of the CERP team where he helped to establish the Property Tax Project. Adeel has extensively worked with the governments of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Kosovo and Nepal as a PFM consultant, where he helped with business process re-engineering and capacity building. His research interests include public financial management, public sector capacity building and digital extension services for agriculture. Adeel holds a Masters from the University of Warwick in Political Economy and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Lahore University of Management Sciences. |
| Dr. Muhammad Anjum Ali Buttar | DG Extension, Deptment of Agriculture | Dr Muhammad Anjum Ali is an extension agent by profession and serving as Director General Agriculture (Extension and Adaptive Research) Punjab. He did M.Sc. (Hon.) in Agronomy, MBA (Marketing) and Ph.D. Agronomy degrees and has more than 30 years of work experience on coveted positions in Punjab Agriculture. He has participated in more than 40 National and International Trainings. Also attended three year course on Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary (SPS) at University of A&M USA through CABI Biosciences Rawalpindi Pakistan. He is a regular speaker of agriculture conferences in Pakistan and abroad on Food Security, Climate Change, Transfer of Technology, Mal-nutrition, Modern Production Practices, Training Techniques and Soil Health. He has also served as Adjunct Professor at University of Agriculture Faisalabad and has over 90 publications published in National and International Journals in addition to regular contribution of Urdu articles. His career as Extension Agent is full of hall mark achievements. As Director Adaptive Research Punjab, he has added number of recommendations on agronomy, plant protection, agriculture economics and agriculture engineering for various zones and crops. Afterwards, as Director General Agriculture (Ext. & AR), Punjab from 2007 onward, reformed Agriculture extension organisation on modern lines and introduced modern gadgets of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for monitoring and Plant Clinics for diagnostics, Data Management and advisory services, Hub Farmers approach to take innovative farmer in a village as farmer Friend and vied to improve infrastructure to increase the reach of Extension service in Punjab. Special Blessing of Almighty Allah and befitting crop specific campaigns yielded historic production of wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane and potato crops. He has introduced off-season vegetable planting through tunnel cultivation, promoted bio-control agents through the establishment of bio-labs in 11 Districts, improved farm mechanisation through the provision of 30,000 tractors and other implements worth billions of rupees on subsidy, promoted micronutrients and refurbishment of soil health improvement concepts etc. Dr. Muhammad Anjum Ali also served for a brief period in 2017-2018 as Member Plant Sciences Division at Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) Islamabad and crafted number of projects and schemes with improvement in seed regulation. |
Moderators
| Name | Title | Biography |
|---|---|---|
| Khushbakht Fatima Jamal | Research & Operations Manager, Precision Development (PxD), CERP | Khushbakht Fatima Jamal is a Global Research and Operations Manager at Precision Development (PxD) with experience in impact evaluation, program management and data analysis. At PxD, she develops, implements and evaluates programs on digital advisory and weather forecast delivery for farmers in Pakistan and India. She has also led scoping studies on the informal lending network in agriculture, high-impact farming practices for major crops, and the role of women in livestock management. Earlier, at CERP, she managed an RCT to evaluate the impact of a remedial learning program for out of school adolescent girls in south Punjab. She has also previously worked as an Assistant Director for the State Bank of Pakistan where she led capacity building initiatives for the country’s agricultural sector. She has also worked at the UN Secretariat and The Resource Group (TRG) in programme evaluation and product development roles, respectively. Khushbakht is a Fulbright scholar and completed her Master of Public Administration from Columbia University. |