ISLAMABAD – The recent inclusion of agriculture sector in the Long TermPlan of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) provides Pakistan anopportunity to significantly reduce its huge trade deficit of around US$9billion with China by exportingmore value added agriculture products to China to tap its growing demand offood commodities.

Under the project, China would transfer its technology to Pakistan toincrease per acre yield of various crops, and to add more value to theagriculture products.

The CPEC long term plan envisages significant development of theagriculture sector of Pakistan – an often-overlooked area amidst thedevelopments being made in the energy, infrastructure, and industrialsectors of the country, said an annual report “State of Economy 2017-18”launched by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Pakistan can enhance its exports through various CPEC initiatives and bytapping into the growing import dependence of China.In agriculture sector, out of China’s global food imports of around $99.6billion, Pakistan’s share is only around 0.37 percent (roughly $ 0.4billion).According to the report, the Ministry of National Food Security andResearch (MNFSR), in its 2018 Food Security Policy, envisages thedevelopment of nine agricultural development zones along the CPEC.

By encouraging innovation, entrepreneurship, and collaboration, the zonescould serve as platforms to develop clusters and infrastructure to nurtureemerging rural businesses in an effort to produce commodities deemedexportable to China. These commodities include cereals, dairy, eggs, meat,honey, tobacco, seafood and fruits, and others.

Meanwhile, according to sources in Planning Ministry, a major progress isexpected during the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to China early nextmonth where the two countries may sign a legal framework agreement underthe corridor to bring investment in the sector and exporting surplusproduce to feed the growing Chinese population.

Ambassador of China in Pakistan, Yao Jing during a press briefing here alsoindicated that China was eagerly waiting for first visit of Imran Khan toChina where a number of project under CPEC including related to theagriculture sector would be finalized.

He also said that China was eager to invest more in Pakistan and buy morefrom the country for its economic development.

The report added that in the crop sector, there is a focus on increasingthe use of modern machinery and synthetic fertilizers to enhance theyields, while food storage, and processing zones would be constructed toreduce significant post-harvest losses.

Similarly, the building of cold storage stations and meat processing plantsis also being planned to enhance productivity of livestock and fisheriessectors besides making their output more competitive in the internationalmarket. These developments hold the potential to not only boost theagriculture output of the country, but also to narrow the trade imbalancebetween China and Pakistan by expanding food exports to the former.

The report pointed out that due to growing demand of processed food inChina, the country has been planning to start investment in the agriculturesector in all the countries along its broader Belt and Road Initiative(BRI). China has so far invested $3.4 billion in agriculture sector abroad.

China intends to develop various food processing and storage stationsacross BRI economies to mitigate price fluctuations and increase supply offood products for the domestic market.

Resultantly, China intends to develop various food processing and storagestations across BRI economies to mitigate price fluctuations and increasesupply of food products for the domestic market.

The development of agriculture sector under CPEC can also serve as anopportunity to modernize the processing segment of the agriculture sector.- APP