Sindh Agriculture Policy (2018-2030).

This Sindh Agriculture Policy (2018-2030) is a sectoral policy document at the provincial level. The vision of the Policy is: An efficient, prosperous and resilient agriculture sector that can provide good incomes and decent employment to those involved in production, processing, transport and storage; and at the same time provide safe, nutritious and cheap food to urban and rural Populations.
The Policy seeks to help eliminate hunger, food insecurity.
The Policy also seeks to reduce rural poverty to half current levels, along with food insecurity and malnutrition. Efforts will be made to increase the agricultural sector growth to 4-5% per annum which is a necessary condition to raising incomes and reducing poverty and food insecurity; providing decent employment, particularly to the large numbers of youth entering the labour market. Higher overall growth and increased productivity will be the main engines for reducing poverty and malnutrition in rural areas. This will be complemented by Government actions to enhance the productive assets of the rural poor; provide inputs and services to the poor and those living in remote and resource poor areas; and encourage nutrition-sensitive agriculture production and household level consumption.
The Policy seeks to make agriculture more productive and sustainable. One of the major objectives of the Policy is: Make efficient and sustainable use of natural resources and minimize negative environmental impacts, make all efforts to preserve the agro-ecological resource base. The key natural resources for agriculture in Sindh are its soil and water and to conserve these, Government will promote better on-farm water management; regulate and control groundwater resources, coastal areas, and rangelands; enhance effective controls on pollutants, including fertilizer, pesticides and effluents; and promote agro forestry and improvement of grazing areas.
The Policy seeks to enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems. According to the Policy, future growth in agriculture, livestock and fisheries must come from improving efficiency and productivity. To achieve this, the sector will generate savings, attract the necessary investment, make technological innovations in production including breeds improvement, processing, storage, and marketing, and ensure secure and equal access to productive resources especially by small agriculture, livestock & fisheries producers. The Government will facilitate this by working to restructure the sector and create a regulatory framework to encourage the banks and private sector to enhance investments and finance into agriculture; change the level and composition of public expenditure to more efficient and effective programs, and provision of public goods; and facilitate and promote technological improvements along the full value chain, particularly for products such as fresh and processed fruits, vegetables and livestock products for which demand is increasing.
In addition, the Policy seeks to enhance resilience and climate change adaptability. The Policy proposes: promote suitable agriculture practices, including new livestock breeds and seeds; upgrade or build suitable infrastructure, particularly at farm level, to deal with higher, but more variable rainfall and consequent floods and droughts; improve dissemination of up-to-date weather information and early warning of disasters; launch agriculture and livestock insurance programs; prepare contingency plans and set aside funds in case of major unforeseen disasters; and introduce improved crop storage and preservation techniques.