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Express Tribune
5 days ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
Agri-budget fails to match damage
Listen to article Agricultural experts and farmer representatives have urged both federal and provincial governments to implement immediate and concrete measures to rescue Pakistan's struggling farming sector. Among the proposed measures are the establishment of an Agriculture Commodities Price Commission (ACPC) to guarantee farmers a minimum 25% return on investment, the formation of an Agriculture Export Authority (AEA) to stabilise local prices and boost exports, abolishment of the 18% GST on seed cotton, removal of GST on tractors and implements, and the setting of a uniform electricity tariff of Rs10 per unit for irrigation tube-wells. Representatives said recent data reveals the sector is in freefall, while provincial budget allocations have been widely condemned as grossly inadequate. The scale of the crisis is staggering. Pakistan's agricultural sector contracted by 5.84% in just one year. Major crop production shrank by over 13%, with wheat production dropping 8.91% to 28.98 million tonnes in 2025. Farmers have endured massive cumulative losses of Rs2,200 billion on wheat alone between May 2024 and May 2025. Cotton production fell to 5.55 million bales — 50% below target and 34% lower than last year — forcing a projected import bill of $4.45 billion, a 178% increase that severely strains foreign reserves. Maize production declined by 15.4%, and sugarcane fell to 84.24 million tonnes from 87.64 million tonnes. The collapse extends beyond production. Agricultural export performance also deteriorated alarmingly in 2024-25. Maize exports dropped 86% to just $58.9 million. Rice exports fell 15% to $3.3 billion. Onion exports dropped 48%, mangoes by 16%, and potatoes by nearly 4%. The downturn reflects deeper structural issues, including declining productivity and a critical lack of support for export infrastructure, quality control, and supply chainsthreatening Pakistan's trade balance and economic stability. In this context, the Punjab government's 2025-26 budget allocation of Rs129.8 billion for agriculture — only Rs12 billion (10.75%) more than last year's Rs117.2 billion — has been met with disbelief and anger. Farmer leaders argue this token increment fails to address a crisis involving multi-trillion-rupee losses. "Allocating only Rs129.8 billion for agriculture in the face of Rs2,200 billion in wheat losses alone is not just inadequate — it's an insult to the farming community," said Khalid Khokhar, President of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad. "It demonstrates a complete failure to grasp the existential threat facing our food security and rural economy. This budget offers Band-Aids for bullet wounds." Adding to the frustration is the Punjab government's proposal to tax agricultural income by aligning tax slabs with those for established businesses. Critics see this move as dangerously disconnected from the realities on the ground. Small and medium-scale farmers, already reeling from plummeting commodity prices, crop failures, climate stress, and water shortages, view the measure as an unbearable additional burden. "How can they even think of taxing us now?" asked Muhammad Aslam, a wheat and cotton grower from Bahawalpur. "Last year's wheat crop drowned me in debt, cotton failed, and now maize prices have crashed. I sold my wife's jewellery just to buy seeds and urea for the next season." Agricultural economist Dr Fahd Ali described the proposal to tax agricultural income amid this unprecedented financial haemorrhage in the farming sector as "economically illiterate and socially risky." He said it ignores the inherent volatility and risk in agriculture compared to corporate sectors. "This risks accelerating disinvestment, deepening rural poverty, and triggering social unrest," he warned. Signs of severe financial strain among farmers are already apparent. According to Khokhar, sharp declines in the use of essential fertilisers like urea and DAP, coupled with plummeting tractor sales, indicate that farmers simply cannot afford the critical inputs needed for the current Kharif season. "This directly threatens yields, especially for high-risk crops like cotton, and raises fears of severely reduced wheat sowing in the upcoming Rabi season, potentially pushing the country towards a food security emergency. The situation fuels warnings of mass rural migration and widespread protests," he added. Agriculture experts and stakeholders overwhelmingly believe that the gap between the scale of the crisis and the government's policy response is astounding. Farmers, they warn, are being pushed to the brink. Ignoring their plight and the foundational role of agriculture is a recipe for national instability. The implementation of the recommended measures — beginning with immediate tax relief on key inputs and the establishment of price and export regulatory bodies — is now seen as critical to averting a full-blown agricultural and social catastrophe.
Indian Express
03-06-2025
- General
- Indian Express
GUJCET 2025 First Provisional Merit List Today; Check details here
GUJCET First Provisional Merit List 2025: The GUJCET merit list released by the Admission Committee for Professional Courses (ACPC) today, June 3, 2025 at – The authority prepared the GUJCET first merit list by using 60% weightage of the marks obtained by candidates in PCM in class 12th and 40% weightage of marks obtained by candidates in GUJCET exam 2025. Candidates who registered them for the GUJCET counselling 2025 will be able to access the merit list. Candidates can download their merit list without using login credentials. The authority will also release the GUJCET final merit list on June 7, 2025 at its website and the final merit list will be prepared for those candidates who appeared in the JEE Mains exam. GUJCET Merit List 2025: Direct Link The Gujarat Common Entrance Test (GUJCET) provisional merit list has been released by the authority. The merit list involves – candidates name, category, roll number, ranks and other crucial details, which candidates have to check carefully. The ACPC has also released a link in its website for candidates to download the list easily. Check the direct link here; Particular Details Direct Link to Download GUJCET Merit List 2025 Link GUJCET Merit List 2025: Steps to Download Candidates can download the GUJCET merit list without using login credentials from the official website – Check the steps to download the merit list here; Visit the official website – Check the ' GUJCET Merit List 2025' link activated in the homepage. After clicking on the homepage, the merit list will be displayed on the homepage. Candidates must check the merit list carefully. GUJCET Merit List 2025: Tie-Breaking Policy In case, if any candidate scores the same marks then the authority will follow a tie-breaking policy. Check the below points to know how the authority uses the candidates scores in the qualifying exam to break the tie for merit list. Those who get higher scores in Maths and Physics will be selected. If the tie continues, then those candidates selected who score more marks in Math and Chemistry. If the tie continues after comparing Math – Physics and Math – Chemistry scores, then the authority will compare the sectional marks for all categories to break the tie. For more information related to GUJCET merit list 2025, candidates must visit the official website –
Zawya
13-02-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
Only 13 of the 195 Parties to the Paris Agreement communicated their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) 3.0 by the deadline of 10 February 2025
Parties to the Paris Climate Agreement are required to submit updated national climate plans or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) every five years to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat. The second iteration of the NDCs was reviewed at the first Global Stock-take (GST1) at COP 28. GST1 demonstrated that the world was well off-course to meet the 1.5 degrees target of the Paris Agreement, with the aggregated impact of all the NDCs putting us on course for close to 3 degrees warming by the end of the century. GST1 thus mandated parties to the Paris Agreement to develop updated and more ambitious NDCs (NDC3.0) and 10-year plans, and to submit them to the secretariat by 10th February 2025, including the targets for 2035. However, by Monday, 10 February 2025, only 13 countries globally had met this deadline. From the African region, only Zimbabwe made its submission on time. Other countries that met the deadline include Marshall Islands, Singapore, Saint Lucia, Andorra, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Uruguay, United States of America, Ecuador, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates. The African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) congratulate Zimbabwe on this achievement and are honored to have supported Zimbabwe in updating and communicating its NDC3.0. ACPC will continue supporting other African member states in this process in the lead up to COP30. Given the urgency of the climate emergency, it is disappointing that only 13 out of the 195 signatories to the Paris Agreement have communicated their national contributions to the climate response. We also note that it is not sufficient for parties to communicate NDCs, adequate finance should be made available to enable their implementation if humanity is to have any realistic chance of preventing irreversible interference with the climate system. In this regard, we note that countries must submit their plans by September at the latest to ensure they are included in the NDC Synthesis Report to be released ahead of Brazil's COP30. ACPC will support African member states to update and communicate their NDC 3.0 and Long-term low emissions development strategies in this timeline. In addition to supporting countries to reformulate their NDCs, ACPC will also participate in assessments to ensure the alignment of communicated NDCs with the recommendations of GST1, and with a 1.5°C trajectory. ACPC and UNECA will continue to explore mechanisms and instruments that can be deployed to mobilize the required finance to implement NDCs. More... NDC Registry Zimbabwe Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC3.0) Country Statement Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
