Report Of The Food And Agriculture Commission (Review Article)

Abstract

The Report of the Food and Agriculture Commission1 is the most
comprehensive official study of the problems of food and agriculture
undertaken in Pakistan since independence. The Report contains twelve
chapters of which six are devoted to policy recommendations. The Report
also contains seven appendices of which Appendix IV is the Interim
Report of the Commission which was submitted to the Government in
February 1960. The methods followed by the Commission in its enquiry are
similar to those followed by agricultural commissions in the past.
Questionnaires were circulated to government agencies, officials and
members of the public likely to possess specialized knowledge in the
field of food and agriculture. Also, fairly extensive tours were
undertaken by members of the Commission all over the country to gain
first-hand knowledge of the problems of agriculture; they visited
agricultural colleges, research institutes, experimental stations, and
seed and livestock farms, holding discussions with government officials
and others on a wide range of topics. An interesting feature of the
enquiry was the setting-up of seventeen advisory panels on particular
topics composed almost entirely of officials having specialized
knowledge or interest in the field in question. A few non-officials were
also included in the panels but their number was very few.
Unfortunately, the reports of the panels, which were presumably
responsible for much of the technical work on which the Commission drew
for their elucidation of the problems in hand as well as for policy
recommendations, are not made available in the report.