My name is Muhammad Younis Afzal, 28. I am a PhD scholar in agricultural extension at Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad, Pakistan. I am from Sargodha, Punjab-Pakistan.
I want to let all the stakeholders of agriculture policy know about the level of need for a national agricultural policy if we are to stay in the global agricultural market.
Being an agricultural country and agro-based economy, Pakistan has not any well defined and clearly stated agriculture policy. The results of the project will be helpful for policymakers to realize the need for national agriculture policy and to take suitable measures to ensure proper formulation and proper implementation of national agricultural policy for sustainable development.
Currently my project proposal is under process of approval from my department. I want to conduct this study at national level and currently I alone intend to complete my project.
The study will assess the need for:
- Agricultural education policy to develop skillful and competent human resources.
- Agricultural research policy to update existing research culture in agriculture.
- Agricultural business policy at the time of WTO.
- Sustainable agricultural extension policy for transfer of knowledge and technology to the end users.
- Possible recommendations for developing national agricultural policy in Pakistan.
Consequently, natural resources are ending and will finish soon if this careless and lavish use of resources. Therefore, developed nations are urging the need for well defined and formulated agricultural policy in agriculture to promote sustainable development especially in developing countries like Pakistan where no such policy exists previously.
This study is therefore designed to evaluate the importance of national agricultural policy for sustainable development and for natural resources and environment conservation in Pakistan.
The proposed research will be an extensive study spread throughout the country. The population of the study will be all stakeholders of agriculture in Pakistan. The study will be conducted at national level, all four provinces, federal capital (Islamabad), Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) will be selected as study area for data collection.
From the given population, a sample will be drawn using purposive sampling technique. Involvement of policy stakeholders with the purpose of getting information rich data is necessary for fruitful results of a national level study.
As the population will be very much heterogeneous so it will be divided into four groups. Population A will include all professionals in agricultural education institutes working in the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK.
Population B will include all professionals in agricultural research institutes in the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK. Population C will include all professionals in agricultural business organizations.
Population D will include all professionals of agricultural Extension department in the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK.
Qualitative research method will also be used to collect data from the officials from the federal capital (Islamabad) using key informant interviews.
Four agriculture-productive districts from each of the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK will be selected using purposive sampling technique. From each district it will also be ensured that the selected districts contain all required components of agriculture so that data collection may be easy and result oriented.
Twenty respondents from each district will be selected for each major component of agriculture (Extension, Education, Research and Business) under study. Separate questionnaires will be prepared for each major component of agriculture mentioned in the objectives. In this way a total sample of 320 respondents from agricultural education departments, agricultural extension experts, researchers and people related to agricultural business will be selected from each province as respondents of the study.
As flowchart of the sampling from each province is as follow.
Total No. of respondents per province = 320
Total No. of respondents from 4 provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK = 320 X 6 = 1920
For qualitative data collection from federal capital, a purposive sample of 80 respondents will selected. This sample will comprise of the respondents from ministry of agriculture, National Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and from Policy Research Institute.
Total quantitative sample size = 1,920
Total qualitative sample size = 80
Total sample size of the study = 2,000
An interview schedule will be used to collect relevant information from the respondents. A comprehensive and detailed interview schedule will be prepared for each major objective of the study with thorough discussion of the agriculture extension experts.
Split questionnaire design will be applied for collecting data from such a heterogeneous population. A separate questionnaire will be prepared for each major component of agriculture, i.e. for agricultural extension, education, research and business.
The reliability of the research instrument will be checked y using Cronbech alpha (r). The content and face validity of the interview schedule will be checked by the panel of experts, and their suggestions, proposals and recommendations will be incorporated to improve the interview schedule.
For qualitative data collection from the federal capital, interview guide will be prepared containing important and relevant questions for collecting opinion of the higher authorities.
The data will be collected using personal interviews method and mail questionnaire method. For convenience, research instrument will be translated into Urdu (where possible) which is national language and relatively easy to understand. Qualitative research method will also be used to collect data from the officials from the federal capital (Islamabad) using key informant interviews.
Data thus collected will be entered in SPSS. Suitable statistical techniques will be applied to obtain the results depending upon the nature of research instrument and factors included in the instrument.
Blogpost and picture submitted by Muhammad Younis Afzal, (Pakistan): younas_rana2002[at]yahoo.com
The content, structure and grammar are at the discretion of the author only.
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impressive (y)
In my opnion, this project looks very productive and it will help to support Pakistan agriculture system and farmers. It is important for bright future of this region Govt and Other organisation support this kind of project, so our new generations can proud on us.
With Regards,
Umair Sarwar
Agriculture Consultant,
London
It’s a good thing for Agricultural country like Pakistan. Govt should implement this finding , after the completion…
It is an impressive and thoughtful project in the history of agricultural research of Pakistan. It will open a debate for the dire need of National Agricultural Policy, which we are lacking even an agro-based country. I wish that it will be a complete guide for formulating and framing a policy to uplift the living standard of nearly 70% of the population of Pakistan directly or indirectly related to the agriculture.
Thanks a lot Mr. Rana for thinking about agricultural community.
Regards
Muhammad Amir Iqbal
Agricultural Economist.
It is an impressive and thoughtful project in the history of agricultural research of Pakistan. It will open a debate for the dire need of National Agricultural Policy, which we are lacking even an agro-based country. I wish that it will be a complete guide for formulating and framing a policy to uplift the living standard of nearly 70% of the population of Pakistan directly or indirectly related to the agriculture.
Thanks a lot Mr. Rana for thinking about agricultural community.
Regards
Muhammad Amir Iqbal
Agricultural Economist.