The Pakistan Development Review
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Understanding Poverty through the Eyes of Lowsalaried Government Employees: A Case Study of the NED University of Engineering and Technology
Get PDFThe last few decades have witnessed a significant shift in the
concept of development. Research focusing on development has shifted its
focus from macroeconomic to more microeconomic development. More
recently, poverty has become an important interest area for researchers,
governments, United Nations agencies, NGOs and some specialised
international development agencies. The United Nations has designated
the period 1997-2006 as the decade for poverty eradication [World Summit
for Social Development (1995)]. The millennium meeting at the United
Nations headquarters and its follow-up meeting at Brussels set up on
ambitious target for reducing poverty by half by the year 2015. [Altaf
(2004)]. Since the overall objective is “human development,” people are
presumed to play a major role in assuming the initiative, management of,
and control over resources, as well as the setting of priorities for
poverty reduction. The translation of this idea into reality
necessitates the investigation of people’s understanding and experiences
of poverty and adjustment to, or coping with, chaotic socio-economic
situations and catastrophes (both human and natural), be they food
insecurity, hunger, famine outbreaks, or poverty. Some of these crises,
in many cases, are not occasional occurrences; rather they are the
consequences of long term processes, especially poverty, which is caused
by a combination of interacting factors related to social, economic,
political, and natural dimensions [Abdel (1996)]
Technical Efficiency of Pakistan’s Manufacturing Sector: A Stochastic Frontier and Data Envelopment Analysis
Get PDFThis paper examines the efficiency of the large-scale
manufacturing sector of Pakistan using parametric as well as
non-parametric frontier techniques. Production frontiers are estimated
for two periods─1995-96 and 2000-01─for 101 industries at the 5-digit
PSIC. The results show that there has been some improvement in the
efficiency of the large-scale manufacturing sector, though the magnitude
of improvement remains small. The results are mixed at the disaggregated
level: whereas a majority of industrial groups have gained in terms of
technical efficiency, some industries have shown deterioration in their
efficiency levels. The results from both the approaches are consistent,
and in line with similar studies
Poverty and Natural Resource Management in Pakistan
Get PDFPakistan is a country of contrasts, with diversified relief
having majestic high mountain ranges snow-covered peaks, eternal
glaciers, and the inter-mountain valleys in the north. Irrigated plains
in the Indus basin contrast with stark deserts and rugged rocky plateaus
in southwest Balochistan. The country is arid and semi-arid with
substantial variation in temperature depending upon the topography and
characterised by continental type of climate. Over the years since
independence the natural resources of the country (land and water) have
been harnessed which in turn made it possible to feed the growing
population which more than quadrupled during the past sixty years.
Construction of Tarbela and Mangla Dam facilitated the growth of
irrigated agriculture and led the cropping intensity to peak. Sectors
other than the agriculture also developed because of the backward and
forward linkage of the agricultural growth thereby having an economy
diversified and much less dependent on agriculture
Natural Resource Conservation, Poverty Alleviation, and Farmer Partnership
Get PDFAgriculture has now been seen in its multiple roles like
contributing to development as an economic activity, source of
livelihood, provider of environmental services and a unique instrument
to overall development. As an economic activity, it is a source of
growth for national economy, food security, foreign exchange as well as
provider of investment opportunities for agro-based industries and rural
non-farm economy. As source of livelihood, it provides jobs to majority
of the people, especially the small holders, landless and the poor. In
terms of environmental services, being the major player in underground
water depletion, agrochemical pollution, soil exhaustion and global
climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions, agriculture can create
good and bad environmental outcomes. Its environmental contributions in
managing watersheds and preserving biodiversity are generally
unrecognised and unremunerated. Agriculture has well established record
as an instrument for poverty reduction1 as well as a leading sector for
overall growth in the agriculture-based countries of the world [World
Bank (2007)]. In future, agriculture has to commit more promises (e.g.
bio-fuel) to the nation without compromising over primary responsibility
of food security along with poverty alleviation, conservation of natural
resource base, environment protection etc. Unfortunately, the
agriculture has been vastly underused for development
Environment-Friendly Cotton Production through Implementing Integrated Pest Management Approach
Get PDFTremendous increases in pesticide use in cotton growing areas
have severely affected the health of peoples and degraded environment
[Poswal and Williamson (1998); Ahmad and Poswal (2000); Orphal 2001 and
Khan (2000)]. Farmer Field School (FFS) based IPM implemented in the
world to reduce dependence on pesticides and promote environmentally
safe plant protection practices. An FFS-led Integrated Pest Management
(IMP) model implemented in Pakistan during 1996—popularly known as
“Vehari Model”, clearly demonstrated that IPM could be implemented on a
large scale at the farm level. UNDP-FAO Policy Reform Project provided
required policy level support to scale up the Farmer-led IPM in the
country. Implementation of pesticide policy project in Pakistan
highlighted that pesticide consumption increased from 665 metric tons in
1980 to 78,132 metric tons in 2003-4. The role of private sector in
promoting the production and use of pesticides was found tremendously
high. The private sector also took full advantage of government’s
pesticide import liberalisation policies. One of the key components of
dramatic increase in pesticide use in Pakistan is related to very soft
import and registration at that time, which allowed the generic
compounds registered elsewhere, to be imported without
fieldtesting
Chronic and Transitory Poverty in Pakistan: Evidence from a Longitudinal Household Survey
Get PDFThis paper analyses the incidence of chronic and transitory
poverty in Pakistan in both urban and rural settings. The findings are
that rural poverty is severer and also chronic as compared to transitory
poverty in urban centres. The main factor behind this phenomenon is the
homogeneity of the rural set-up which affects the employment and wage
levels adversely. On the other hand, in the urban areas, heterogeneous
population with diverse occupations provides better employment and wage
opportunities. Furthermore, illiteracy, landlessness, lack of ownership
of dwellings, and dependency on sharecropping are the main factors
accentuating rural poverty. The paper also analyses the zakat element of
the safety net strategy. Contrary to the prevailing perception that
zakat does not reach the actually poor, it turns out that in fact zakat
has become an “identification mark” for the chronic poor. The findings
of this paper have significant implications for the poverty reduction
strategy of the Government of Pakistan
An Anatomy of State Failures in Forest Management in Pakistan
Get PDFDeforestation remains one of the most intractable
environmental problems of today. About one third the size of the
original forest cover has disappeared so far. Despite continuous efforts
by the world community to curb this process, deforestation continues
unabated in most parts of the world, with serious consequences for the
human livelihoods, eco systems, and global climate. Pakistan also faces
serious problem of depletion of its forest reserves. Approximately 39000
ha of forest are being cleared every year.1 If deforestation continues
at this pace, it is feared that Pakistan will lose most of its forest
within the next thirty to forty years. Being a forest poor country, with
forest occupying less than 5 percent of total land area,2 protection of
its forest resources is a vital task. Forest management faces many
challenges in Pakistan. Forests face tremendous pressure, not only from
a population of 160 million people for meeting their needs3 (be it only
subsistence needs), but also from market forces which have seen soaring
timber prices for many years now. Forest department is ill equipped to
counter these challenges. It lacks human and financial resources, and
relevant technical expertise
Measuring Production Function and Technical Efficiency of Onion, Tomato, and Chillies Farms in Sindh, Pakistan
Get PDFPakistan is blessed with vast agricultural resources on
account of its fertile land, well-irrigated plains, huge irrigation
system and infrastructure, variety of weathers, and centuries old
experiences of farming. Agriculture is the single largest sector of the
economy which contributes 20.9 percent in GDP and employees 43.4 percent
of total work force. The estimated GDP of agricultural crops at current
factor cost is Rs 1,608,522 million with major crops contributing Rs
579996 million and minor crops valued at Rs 191,835 million for the year
2006-07 [Pakistan (2007)]. The horticulture crops (fruits, vegetables
and condiments) alone contribute Rs 116.645 billion, equivalent to US 134 million (2003-04), of which
fruits account for US 25.7
million (19.2 percent) and fruit and vegetable preparations (mostly
juices) US$ 5.6 million which is 4.2 percent [Pakistan (2004)]
The Fiscal Reaction Function and the Transmission Mechanism for Pakistan
Get PDFModern macroeconomics literature emphasises both the short run
and long run objectives of fiscal policy [Romer (2006)]. In the short
run it can be used to counter output cyclicality and/or stabilise
volatility in macro variables, which is descriptively same as of effects
of the short run monetary policy. Further for the long-run, fiscal
policy can also affect both the demand and supply side of the economy.
But in most traditional analyses it is assumed that fiscal policy would
adjust to ensure the intertemporal budget constraint to be satisfied,
while monetary policy is free to adjust its instruments [‘Ricardian
Regime’ by Sargent (1982)] such as stock of money supply or the nominal
interest rate [Walsh (2003)]. The debt financing methods, expenditure
and tax powers of fiscal authorities i.e. the fiscal policy has also
been seen as to affect both the supply and demand side of the economy.
As noted by Baxter and King (1993), the initial Real Business Cycle
models had only the supply side effects of the fiscal policy, where
these were transmitted through the wealth effect and labourleisure
choices of the household. Recently also New-Keynesian type models with
micro-foundations and sticky prices argue that still through the supply
side fiscal policy management could be accorded for stabilisation
[Linnemann and Schabert (2003)]. The demand side effects of the fiscal
policy could also be found only with more imperfections such as ‘Rule of
Thumb’ consumers or those with liquidity constraints, which lead to
exclusion of Ricardian equivalence [Gali, et al. (2005)]. But all that
depends on the structure of the economy, as Blanchard and Perotti (2002)
stated
Techno-Economic Evaluation of Chromium Recovery Pilot Plant Installed at Kasur Tanneries Complex, Pakistan
Get PDFChromium metal is widely used as a tanning agent worldwide.
The process called chrome-tanning is accomplished in three steps:
Pickling, Tanning and Basification1 (Pakistan Tanners Association).
Chromium sulfate is the most widely used chemical in this process.
Approximately, 60-70 percent of chromium sulfate applied is taken up by
the hides and skins, while its 30 to 40 percent remains un-used and is
discharged as a component of wastewater into natural water bodies such
as rivers, streams, etc., which has adverse environmental impacts on
living organisms particularly to humans and animals [Weitz and Luxenberg
(n.d.)], and water animals such as fish [Eisler (1986)]. The diseases
especially encountered in humans, are of nervous disorders. The
pollution from tanneries effluent particularly their chromium component
has formed the basis that many developed countries have banned tanning
on their soils. Chrome tanned leather, being the need of people all over
the world, has the edge that its manufacture cannot be stopped. This has
given some economic advantage to some developing countries including
Pakistan to manufacture leather and export it to the developed
countries. To sustain, different methods have been developed to recover
chromium from the tannery effluents before their drainage in the natural
water bodies. A few examples of these methods are High Chrome
Exhaustion, Direct Recycling of the Spent Tanning Float and Chrome
Recovery and Reuse [Arrafay Labs (2003)]