During a recent visit to Borneo island in the Malay archipelago, I came across a shrimp farm on the coast of the rainforest-covered island, run by a Chinese woman entrepreneur.
asserted
I → come → entrepreneur
Using a seawater reservoir behind a mangrove forest, she had built a business exporting shrimp around the world.
asserted
she → use → world
My mind drifted home to Pakistan’s 1,058-kilometre coastline, along Sindh and Balochistan.
asserted
mind → drift → Sindh
Why, I wondered, do we see so little aquaculture of this kind?
asserted
we → wonder → kind
I was reminded of a conversation I had with the owner of a hatchery recently established in Gharo in Sindh.
asserted
I → remind → Sindh
He told me that one of his biggest worries was transporting the hatchlings quickly and safely to fish and shrimp farms in Muzaffargarh, Punjab.
asserted
one → tell → Muzaffargarh
The irony struck me.
asserted
irony → strike → me
The hatchery is in coastal Sindh, close to the sea and the Indus delta, yet its young fish and shrimp have to travel hundreds of kilometres inland to find farms.
asserted
fish → have → farms
I asked him why people were not investing in fish and shrimp farming in Sindh?
asserted
people → ask → Sindh
He did not have a clear answer, except to say that there were not enough investors and the business climate is also not supportive.
asserted
climate → have → answer
The problem in rural Sindh may not be a lack of capital, but its concentration — and the failure to create the conditions in which small businesses can grow into industries
Sindh has fertile land, a long coastline and a river, alongside abundant agricultural produce, livestock, fisheries and traditional crafts.
uncertain
Sindh → create → produce
Yet much of this potential has not translated into local processing, packaging and cold-chain businesses that could create jobs beyond agriculture.
uncertain
that → translate → agriculture
Why did this not happen?
asserted
this → happen → ?
Economic historian Imran Ali has documented how British canal colonies transformed western Punjab from the late 19th century.
asserted
colonies → document → century
Irrigation brought semi-arid land under cultivation, encouraging commercial agriculture and the growth of new settlements and market towns.
asserted
Irrigation → bring → settlements
The colonial project also served revenue, political and military objectives.
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project → serve → objectives
Regardless of their motives, the economic landscape was transformed.
asserted
landscape → transform → motives
Sindh too underwent an irrigation revolution, particularly after the Sukkur Barrage opened in 1932.
asserted
Barrage → undergo → 1932
But perhaps the social structure on to which this new agricultural wealth was grafted was different.
asserted
wealth → graft → which
Economist Mahmood Hasan Khan points out the growth of small owner-cultivators and market relations in parts of Punjab, while the older landlord-sharecropper structure remained much stronger in Sindh.
asserted
structure → point → Sindh
Economist Akmal Hussain argues that owner-cultivators have greater incentives to invest, potentially generating the savings and demand needed for industrialisation.
asserted
cultivators → argue → industrialisation
Where agricultural income is concentrated in fewer hands, the pattern of investment may be different.
uncertain
pattern → concentrate → investment
THE CONCENTRATION OF CAPITAL
It would, however, be too easy to explain Sindh’s predicament simply by invoking “feudalism.”
asserted
It → explain → feudalism
Political economist Akbar Zaidi argues that agriculture in Pakistan has undergone a substantial capitalist transformation.
asserted
agriculture → argue → transformation
Commercialisation and the ‘Green Revolution’ brought capitalist farmers, machinery and wage labour and, in some areas, small manufacturers, skilled workers and service businesses.
asserted
Commercialisation → bring → areas
Sindh’s sugar mills, cotton ginning and rice milling show that agricultural wealth did become industrial capital.
asserted
wealth → show → ?
But large enterprises owned by wealthy families are not the same as a broad base of independent businesses.
asserted
enterprises → own → businesses
Both represent investment and capitalism, but the latter creates a much wider entrepreneurial class.
asserted
latter → represent → class
A farmer investing in transport, a workshop repairing agricultural machinery or a manufacturer producing spare parts can generate further demand for suppliers, traders and services.
asserted
farmer → invest → suppliers
Why has this chain remained so weak across much of rural Sindh?
asserted
chain → remain → Sindh
It may have been the concentration of capital and the failure to spread entrepreneurial investment widely enough through its towns and communities.
uncertain
It → spread → towns
Economist Kaiser Bengali has described Sindh as having a “dual identity”: Karachi on one side and the rest of the province on the other.
asserted
Bengali → describe → other
Partition created another rupture.
asserted
Partition → create → rupture
Much of Sindh’s Hindu mercantile and entrepreneurial class migrated to India, while Muslim migrants from different parts of the Subcontinent brought new commercial skills, networks and capital to Karachi.
asserted
migrants → migrate → Karachi
Over the following decades, Karachi became Pakistan’s great port, financial centre and industrial metropolis.
asserted
Karachi → follow → decades
For someone from rural Sindh with money to invest, a good education or entrepreneurial ability, Karachi offered far greater opportunities than his own town.
asserted
Karachi → invest → town
Perhaps herein lies another paradox.
asserted
paradox → lie → ?
Sindh generated considerable wealth at both ends of its economy: agricultural wealth in the countryside and commercial and industrial wealth in Karachi.
asserted
Sindh → generate → Karachi
Yet the economic centres in between remained relatively weak.
asserted
centres → remain → between
History, however, can only explain so much.
asserted
History → explain → much
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
