PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s renewed push to strengthen agricultural research, provide quality seeds to smallholders and medium-scale farmers, and improve crop estimate systems could help address some of the sector’s long-standing weaknesses in farm productivity.

But good intentions alone are not enough. The real question is whether the government can turn his directives into a coherent policy and implement it effectively. That would require reforming federal and provincial agriculture policies, markets and institutions that determine what farmers produce, what they pay for inputs and what they earn. Above all, an agricultural policy must be responsive to the needs of small and medium-sized farmers rather than powerful lobbies.

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