Impact of WTO’s Trade Liberalisation on Selected Food Crops in Pakistan

WTO has major implications for almost all the sectors of economy but agriculture sector is the one which is more prone to the implementation of its agreements, particularly the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). The study intended to evaluate the impact of WTO on domestic ma rket and farm-level prices, production and consumption of major food commodities like wheat and rice and ultimately their impact on the producer’s and consumer’s surpluses. The farm level impact was also evaluated to chalk out the eventual position at farm level with the purpose to identify necessary policies and actions to cope with the new world situation. The study tries to provide a useful guide to the likely impacts of agricultural trade liberalisation. It was found that openness of the economy would affect the domestic demand, supply and consumption along with affecting the producer and consumer surpluses. It was estimated that increased prices would have increased production of wheat which would have generated a gain of producer’s surplus of Rs 10,682 million. On the other hand due to increased wholesale price of wheat, the domestic demand of wheat would have declined and caused a loss to consumer surplus of Rs 12,557 million. Similarly, the increased production of rice would have generated a gain of producer’s surplus of Rs 3,708 million. However, due to increase in the wholesale price of rice, its domestic demand would have declined thus causing a loss to consumers’ surplus. Overall the impact of the increase in the international price of wheat would have resulted in a net loss to Pakistan of Rs 1,875 million during 2004-05 while in case of rice it would have resulted in a gain of Rs 1,215 million in 2004-05.Trade Liberalisation, Food Crops, Export, Consumer Surplus, Comparative Advantage, Free Trade.

Impact of WTO’s Trade Liberalisation on Selected Food Crops in Pakistan

There is a great potential in Pakistan for production of all types of food commodities due to vast natural resource base, covering various ecological and climatic zones. Most of the agricultural commodities produced in the country are consumed by the local population while the rest is exported in the form of primary products and some value added products. Previously, Pakistani products had a good market overseas with no restrictions of quality and quantity but under the changing environment affected by WTO, it is expected that Pakistan will face a strong competition in the agriculture sector from its competitors in the world market. According to the neoclassical trade theory, trade flows and pattern will develop along the lines of comparative advantage and competitiveness that can act as indicators of trade potential and direction. There has been extensive government involvement in the determination of the overall structure of agriculture and its patterns of production, employment and trade. Pakistani government has been intervening in agriculture sector in the past in order to support agricultural production, income supports, ensure food security, improve the balance of trade, reduce consumer prices, address environmental and regional concerns and to pursue sanitary and phyto-sanitary objectives [Hassan (1995)]. Pakistan is a founding member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) since its creation. Following the Uruguay Round negotiations, all agricultural products were brought under multinational trade rules by WTO, under the Agreement on Agriculture. This established a framework to begin liberalising agricultural trade through the reduction of import duties (tariffs), trade-distorting production subsidies and export subsidies. Prior to the Uruguay Round, trade in agriculture was highly distorted. Market access for agricultural products was limited as most markets were restricted by physical import barriers. The presence of massive domestic subsidies led to overproduction of temperate crops in the developed countries that led to excess supply, and export subsidies were used to dump the surplus agricultural output in international markets. This resulted in depressed market prices and, in spite of being low-cost producers of agricultural products; developing countries could not compete with the subsidised exports from developed countries

Pharmacists and telemedicine: an innovative model fulfilling Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The lack of access to safe medicines and quality healthcare services in peri-urban and rural areas is a major challenge driving a health system to innovate new models of care. This commentary will discuss the implementation and impact of the “Guddi baji” tele-pharmacy model, a project piloted by doctHERs, one of Pakistan’s leading telemedicine organizations. This innovative model has described the reintegration of women into the workforce by leveraging technology to improve the level of primary health care services and contributes to safe medication practice in a remote area. Our intervention proposed the deployment of technology-enabled, female frontline health workers known as the Guddi baji (meaning The Good Sister) in a rural village. They serve as an “access point to health care” that is linked to a remotely located health care professional; a licensed doctor or a pharmacist within this model

A Novel Derivatization Ultraviolet Spectrophotometric Method for the Determination of Amlodipine Besylate Using Benzoyl Chloride

The present research work aims to develop a novel ultraviolet UV spectrophotometric method for the determination of Amlodipine Besylate using Benzoyl Chloride as a derivatizing agent, which is simple, rapid, sensitive, selective, and accurate method for the spectrophotometric determination of Amlodipine Besylate in powder form.  Synthesis is based upon the Schotten Baumann Reaction. In this method, derivatization of aliphatic amine group of Amlodipine Besylate carried out with benzoyl chloride and aqueous sodium hydroxide (NaOH).The λmax was found to be 237 and 226nm for assay of Amlodipine Besylate and synthesised product respectively. The linearity was found in concentration range of 1-10 μg/ml. The correlation coefficient (r2)was found 0.9985. The regression equation, intercept (a) and slope (b) was found as Y=0.0762x - 0.0077, 0.0077 and 0.0762 respectively. Method was developed and validated as per ICH guidelines for linearity, accuracy, precision, LOD, LOQ, interday and intraday. The LOD and LOQ for estimation of Amlodipine besylate were found as 0.2367, 0.7178 respectively. Recovery of Amlodipine besylate was found to be 93.30%.The proposed method is found to be simple, rapid, selective and highly sensitive than most of the Spectrophotometric methods available in literature. Keywords: Derivatization, Ultraviolet spectrophotometry, Amlodipine besylate, Validation, Synthesis

Bacillus thuringiensis PM25 ameliorates oxidative damage of salinity stress in maize via regulating growth, leaf pigments, antioxidant defense system, and stress responsive gene expression

Soil salinity is the major abiotic stress that disrupts nutrient uptake, hinders plant growth, and threatens agricultural production. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are the most promising eco-friendly beneficial microorganisms that can be used to improve plant responses against biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, a previously identified B. thuringiensis PM25 showed tolerance to salinity stress up to 3 M NaCl. The Halo-tolerant Bacillus thuringiensis PM25 demonstrated distinct salinity tolerance and enhance plant growth-promoting activities under salinity stress. Antibiotic-resistant Iturin C (ItuC) and bio-surfactant-producing (sfp and srfAA) genes that confer biotic and abiotic stresses were also amplified in B. thuringiensis PM25. Under salinity stress, the physiological and molecular processes were followed by the over-expression of stress-related genes (APX and SOD) in B. thuringiensis PM25. The results detected that B. thuringiensis PM25 inoculation substantially improved phenotypic traits, chlorophyll content, radical scavenging capability, and relative water content under salinity stress. Under salinity stress, the inoculation of B. thuringiensis PM25 significantly increased antioxidant enzyme levels in inoculated maize as compared to uninoculated plants. In addition, B. thuringiensis PM25-inoculation dramatically increased soluble sugars, proteins, total phenols, and flavonoids in maize as compared to uninoculated plants. The inoculation of B. thuringiensis PM25 significantly reduced oxidative burst in inoculated maize under salinity stress, compared to uninoculated plants. Furthermore, B. thuringiensis PM25-inoculated plants had higher levels of compatible solutes than uninoculated controls. The current results demonstrated that B. thuringiensis PM25 plays an important role in reducing salinity stress by influencing antioxidant defense systems and abiotic stress-related genes. These findings also suggest that multi-stress tolerant B. thuringiensis PM25 could enhance plant growth by mitigating salt stress, which might be used as an innovative tool for enhancing plant yield and productivity

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely