Challenging job

PPP co-Chairman Asif Zardari, who announced on Friday that the government would introduce a "Benazir Card" to help the seven million poorest of the poor tide over the current inflation, particularly in eatable commodities, referred to the sharp increase in the global oil prices over which the government had no control. Admitted that external factors have, to a considerable extent, contributed to this phenomenon. But had we taken adequate steps over the years to develop our asset of being an agricultural country, we could have at least warded off the price hike in food items. Besides, at this time when most countries are feeling the pinch, our surpluses, which proper exploitation of our resources would have resulted in, would have earned us a tidy sum. However, unfortunately, the productivity of our otherwise fertile land remains abysmally low; the farmer complains of sub-standard, high-priced inputs and being short-changed by the middleman when it comes to selling his produce; the officials supposed to be helping him introduce modern methods of cultivation are found indifferent; and the shortage of water for irrigation becomes acuter by the day as petty, parochial interests subvert plans to develop big water storages.