India-Pakistan Legislators and Public Officials Dialogue on Sharing of Experiences on Governance and Democracy

  1. The second meet of the Third Round

    of Pakistan-India Legislators and Public Officials Dialogue on Sharing of

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    Experiences on Governance and Democracy was held at the Centre

    for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) in Chandigarh,

    India, on March 10, 2016 to share experiences and perceptions

    on Effective Agriculture Practices and Policies.

  2. The Dialogue brought together Members of

    Parliament and State/Provincial Legislatures from Pakistan and India, practitioners

    and subject-experts from the two countries who raised key issues and reform

    ideas covering the theme of promotion of agriculture.

  3. Participants acknowledged and appreciated

    the cooperation, facilitation and co-hosting of the Dialogue in Chandigarh

    by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID)

    alongside PILDAT. Special thanks in this regard were also offered

    by the delegates for Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar, MP, for facilitating

    this cooperation between CRRID and PILDAT and in his leadership and facilitation

    of the Dialogue.

  4. The dialogue participants on both sides

    agreed that in Agriculture, as in other areas, there is an enormous potential

    to learn from good practices and policies in both countries for each other.

    They demanded that barriers to communication and travel must be brought

    down in this regard.

  5. Participants from Pakistan noted with interest

    some of the key initiatives implemented in the Indian Punjab for promotion

    of improved agricultural practices. These included low-interest agricultural

    loans set at 8% interest with subvention of 4%; provision of duty free tractors

    to farmers and loans for tubewells; water conservation by imposing restriction

    on plantation of rice before June 10 each year and time-limits of 15-days

    for Government functionaries to take decisions on agricultural loans, etc.,

    which resulted in thousands of loans for tubewells.

  6. Both sides acknowledged that agriculture

    remained a major area of potential cooperation for both India and Pakistan.

    Most challenges faced by the agricultural sectors in both the countries

    are similar. These included groundwater depletion; deteriorating quality

    of groundwater and soil degradation and air pollution due to excessive use

    of insecticides and pesticides; stagnation in cropping yields and last,

    but not the least, adverse impacts of climate change. It was also recognized

    that apart from these challenges, there is a critical need to improve the

    marketing of farming products.

  7. Participants stressed that Governments may

    consider cooperating to address these challenges to avoid the threat of

    food security, high number of suicides of farmers with low-holdings and

    an adverse impact on the economy.

  8. Apart from these shared challenges, there

    are also challenges peculiar to each country. For Pakistan, these include

    low per acre yield; inefficient use of irrigation water; infrastructural

    deficiencies; deficient agricultural research; high input costs; absentee

    farmers; lack of robust and consistent price supporting mechanisms; and

    low crop intensity.

  9. Some of the challenges peculiar to the Indian

    agricultural sector include lack of focus on horticulture, floriculture

    and livestock and subsidiary occupations like bee keeping, sericulture and

    pisciculture.

  10. It was recognized that both the countries

    have various areas for cooperation in the field of agriculture. These included

    sharing of research and development such as in seed quality; optimum irrigation

    practices; facing climate change; efficient agro-processing; recharging

    of groundwater; development of drought resistant crops; exploration of the

    horticulture, floriculture, livestock, fisheries, and organic farming sectors;

    use of technology and progressive agricultural practices.

  11. Participants proposed that there is a need

    to create a single market for agricultural produce, especially for perishable

    goods, to balance shortages and surpluses in both the countries.

  12. It was proposed that Joint Research Centres

    should be established on the India-Pakistan border, spanning over 100 acres

    on each side to begin with, where researchers and students of agriculture

    universities and experts can carry out joint research on seeds, crops, and

    combating crop-related diseases.

  13. Participants from India, highlighting their

    experiences, shared that free electricity for farmers, or even electricity

    at flat rates, is, in the long run, harmful for the agriculture sector.

    Pakistan may consider keeping this in view in case it wishes to subsidise

    the electricity for the farmers, which the Indian scientists believe has

    been responsible for fast lowering water table in Indian Punjab.

  14. Participants also believed that there is

    a need to promote regular exchanges between students and experts on agriculture,

    so that the practitioners on both sides remain apprised of good practices.

  15. The visa policy where India-Pakistan citizens

    over 65 years of age were granted visa at the border should be implemented

    in letter and spirit.

  16. To consider promoting exchange of farmers’

    delegation and facilitate participation of industrialists and farmers in

    agriculture fairs (Kissan Melas) on both sides of the border.

  17. The small farmers and the landless peasants’

    problems cannot be solved in the farm sector alone. They need to be provided

    with off-farm gainful employment opportunities to supplement their income.

  18. In addition, participants also underscored

    an urgent need across the SAARC countries to strengthen the third tier of

    democracy, i.e., Elected Local Governments. Both sides agreed that

    both India and Pakistan must share good practices in this regard, adding,

    at a later stage, lessons and experiences from other SAARC countries. Both

    PILDAT and CRRID agreed to cooperate further in this regard.

The Pakistani Delegation, joining the Dialogue

in Chandigarh, included (in alphabetical order by first Name in the sequence

of Members of Senate, National Assembly, Provincial Assemblies and Experts)

Senator Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Abdul Qayyum, (Punjab; Pakistan Muslim

League — Nawaz – PML-N); Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak, (KP;

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf – PTI); Senator Saud Majeed, (Punjab,

PML-N); Mr. Muhammad Afzal Khan, MNA, (NA-82 Faisalabad-VIII,

Punjab, PML-N); Parliamentary Secretary for Finance; Mr. Shehryar Afridi,

MNA, (NA-14, Kohat, KP, PTI), Mr. Asad Qaisar, MPA, (PK-35

Swabi-V, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, PTI) Speaker Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa;

Ms. Mahtab Akbar Rashdi, MPA, (RSW-156, Sindh, Pakistan Muslim

League -Functional -PML-F); Mian Mehmood-ur- Rashid, MPA, (PP-151

(Lahore-XV), Punjab, PTI), Leader of Opposition, Provincial Assembly of the

Punjab; Dr. Najma Afzal Khan, MPA, (RSW-320, Punjab, PML-N);

Mr. Muhammad Ali Nekokara, Former SSP, Pakistan Police and

Dr. Muhammad Shoaib Suddle, Former IG Police, Sindh & Balochistan,

Pakistan.

With Dr. Rashpal Malhotra,

Executive Vice Chairman-CRRID, in the chair, the Indian participants joining

the Dialogue included (in alphabetical order by first Name in the sequence

of Members of the Lok Sabha and Subject Experts) Mr. Prem Singh

Chandumajra, MP, Lok Sabha, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Anandpur Sahib,

Punjab; Dr. Kuldip Kaur Director General-CRRID; Dr.

G.S. Kalkat, Chairman of Punjab Farmers Commission; Dr. Jaswinder

Singh Brar, Professor of Economics, Centre for Economic Change, Punjabi

University, Patiala; Ambassador (Retd.) P.S. Sahai, Principal

Research Advisor-CRRID; Dr. R. S. Ghuman, Nehru SAIL Chair

Professor-CRRID; Dr. S. K. Mangal, Member, Governing Body-CRRID;

Dr. S. S. Johl, Chancellor, Central University of Punjab, Patiala;

Sardar Manpreet Singh Badal, Former Finance Minister of Punjab;

Dr. Satish Verma, RBI Chair Professor-CRRID; Mr. Satish

Dhanda, Industrialist from Ludhiana; Dr. Sucha Singh Gill,

Senior Professor-CRRID and Dr. Sukhwinder Singh, Professor

of Economics, Centre for Economic Change, Punjabi University, Patiala.