Seeds of neglect

Sindh has cut its agriculture research and development allocation by 57pc for FY27. That is the immediate fact. It is also the wrong cut, in the wrong province, at the wrong moment.

The province has allocated Rs255m for agriculture research out of a Rs4.71bn agriculture development portfolio. The money will fund five ongoing schemes, with no apparent room for a serious expansion of scientific capacity. This comes as Sindh’s farm economy faces climate stress, water insecurity, disease outbreaks and declining crop resilience.

The consequences are already visible. Banana growers in Tando Allahyar and Mirpurkhas are fighting Panama Wilt and other diseases that are destroying orchards and forcing land out of banana cultivation. Mango orchards, including Sindhri varieties, continue to suffer from malformation, hoppers and thrips. Cotton, once one of Sindh’s defining crops, has declined from its FY10 peak of 4.2m bales to 2.848m bales in FY26. Onion acreage and production have also fallen sharply, with growers in Matiari and other districts scaling back after repeated losses.

These are not isolated crop failures. They are symptoms of a broken knowledge system.

Sindh is not a marginal agricultural province. It contributes a major share of Pakistan’s rice, cotton, sugarcane and wheat. Its farms feed households, supply industry and sustain rural employment. Yet the province is also among the most exposed to floods, erratic rainfall, heat stress, salinity and contested water flows. In such conditions, research is not a luxury line item. It is basic infrastructure.

Modern agriculture depends on seed science, disease surveillance, soil management, water efficiency and extension services that connect laboratories with farms. Without these, farmers are left to guess. They rely on informal advice, imported seed, ad hoc pesticides and costly trial and error. The result is lower yields, higher risks and weaker national food security.

This is not only a Sindh problem. Pakistan’s broader agricultural stagnation has long been tied to weak research, poor seed development and a failure to translate scientific work into field-level productivity. Cotton has collapsed nationally. Wheat yields remain below potential. Horticulture suffers avoidable post-harvest and disease losses. Water productivity is poor. Climate adaptation remains more slogan than system.

Successive governments speak of food security, export potential and rural prosperity. But these objectives require patient investment in institutions that do not produce ribbon-cutting moments. Research stations, seed labs, plant pathologists, breeders and extension workers rarely make headlines. Their absence does.

Sindh’s fiscal pressures may be real. But cutting agricultural research in a climate-stressed province is a false economy. It saves little today and costs far more tomorrow — in lost crops, distressed farmers, higher food prices and deeper dependence on imports.

Pakistan cannot build climate resilience by starving the very institutions meant to create it.