Agriculture Policy - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - A Ten Year Perspective.

The agriculture policy of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will support and promote sustainable agriculture as an inclusive and dynamic source of economic growth and development; and a producer of food, incomes and employment. The specific goals and objectives of agricultural policy are to: enhance sector productivity and competitiveness by activities such as improving the supply chain, technology dissemination and trade promotion; address food security and incomes needs of the vulnerable sections of the population and targeted actions are needed to improve food security, reduce poverty and enhance the role of women; and improve natural resource management, adaptation to climate change and disaster risk management. The agriculture sector, including crops, livestock, on-farm water management and fisheries, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has not performed in line with its potential and there is an urgent need to accelerate growth of the agriculture sector as a prerequisite for improving rural incomes and food security. The inclusion of gender marker in planning stages will also contribute gender mainstreaming programs and projects implementation.
The policy aims at enhancing the sector of productivity and competitiveness through Commodity Chains. In fact, agriculture has shown itself to be a strong source of growth and higher incomes in those parts of the province that have the land, water, climate, infrastructure and entrepreneurship to move into production of high value products. The focus on such products should continue and will include: large-scale, commercial production and processing of horticultural products; specialty products, both fresh and processed, for niche markets; maize, particularly hybrid maize, in both irrigated and barani areas; dairy along with meat and wool (sheep, goats); fish from the colder streams and lakes in the higher valleys.
In order to achieve the vision of food security, poverty reduction and economic growth, the agriculture policy is focused on increasing provincial government reliance on its own resources, improving the Government’s capacity in terms of effectiveness and efficiency and future dialogues with donors, and multiplying efforts for resource mobilization with financing agencies.
The occurrence of natural disasters has increased in recent past leaving long lasting impact on the local population. The potential hazards of the province mainly include floods, climate change, conflicts, earthquakes, and pest/disease attacks. Therefore, the department will need to focus on enhancing its capacity in disaster preparedness, mitigation and response by adopting appropriate strategies and tools. The disaster preparedness and mitigation measure will be considered as integral part of department’s normative activities and plans.