GLOBALIZATION DRIVEN POLICIES IN AGRICULTURE AN IMPACT ANALYSIS

Abstract

World agriculture is changing fast under the new rules of the game, with the WTO agreement on agriculture. The present study is designed to critically analyze the impacts of trade liberalization on agriculture, food security and its social/welfare aspects with special reference to poverty in Pakistan. Beside macro-level implications, micro-level effects have also been discussed by comparing the cost of producing wheat before and after liberalization as a case study to dig out the consequences of globalization on small peasants. It reveals that the plight of wheat farmers had worsened with decline in real incomes between 1990-91 and 2005-06. Government policies are neither farmer nor consumer friendly. Globalization calls for competitiveness and openness. Entering globalization without competitiveness exposes the society to inflation, poverty and food insecurity. The way biofuels and speculation have taken food out of the mouths of starving people shows how globalization has already made national agriculture exposed to foreign interests.