ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER # 2
AGRICULTURE SECTOR OF PAKISTAN
1. Introduction
Agriculture is an art of cultivation crop and raising livestock, it plays a very huge role in
the economies of underdeveloped or developing countries. In Pakistan agriculture used to be a
leading sector in economic growth, during the time of independence agriculture made up
around 53% of country’s GDP and more than 65% of our labor was employed in this sector.
These figures have changed drastically in last 7 decades due to different factors including
political, social, and environmental and climate change (Syed Ali Raza, 2012). As of now, the
contribution of agriculture to GDP is 22.04% and the total employment in this sector is 35.9%
(World Bank national accounts data, and OECD National Accounts data files, 2020). The rural
population of Pakistan in 2019, was 63.09% (World Bank, 2019) and agriculture is a source of
income for majority of the rural population of Pakistan as the people living in rural areas are
either directly or indirectly linked with agriculture. It also provides the raw materials for the
different industrial sectors of the country and is a major buyer of agricultural products like
fertilizers, tractors etc
2. Agriculture in Pakistan
With the increasing population of Pakistan, the demand for off has also increased significantly
the total area of Pakistan is 796,096km, but 21.1 million of the area is cultivated. The
agriculture and availability of food in the world depends upon weather conditions, natural
disasters, civil wars etc. When the production of food is less than the demand the prices go up
and the poor are left to starve, as Pakistan is a developing country and approximately 1/3rd of
our population lives below poverty line, so according to a report around 49% of people in
Pakistan have food insecurity (Benin, 2009). With climate change it is estimated that the wheat
production of Pakistan will decrease by 50% in 2050. Pakistan is already facing the effects of
climate change as the mango production in Pakistan is severely affected due to changes in
climate. Despite of all this Pakistan is one of the largest producers of major crops like wheat,
rice, cotton, maize, sugarcane etc. and they contribute to around 35% of agriculture, livestock
contributes to around 61% in agriculture, fisheries contribute 2.06% and forestry have the
contribution of 2.13% in the agriculture.
The table below shows growth in all the sectors of agriculture from 2014-2020, it can be seen
that the crops production had negative growth in 2015, 2016 and 2019, Forestry saw a massive
decline in 2015 and negative growth of 2.33% in 2017.
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3. Crops
In Pakistan there are two cropping seasons “Kharif” and “Rabi”. The sowing of seed sin kharif
season begins in April and ends in June. The crops sowed in this seasons include, rice, cotton,
Maize, sugarcane etc., the harvesting of these crops happen from October r to December. The
Rabi crops, on the other hands, are sowed in October to December, these crops include wheat,
mustard, tobacco, barley etc. The harvesting season of these crops start from April and ends in
June. (Pakistan Economic Survey, 2020). The crops harvested in Pakistan can be divided into
two different categories i.e. Major cops and minor crops.
3.1. Major Crops
The major crops are wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane and maize. These crops contribute to around
21.73% of the agriculture sector and 4.2% of GDP (Pakistan Economic Survey, 2020). The
table below shows the production of the major crops of the country from the year 2013 to 2020.
Wheat: Wheat is one of the most used crops in the world, and it the most used food in the
country. As of 2020, this crop contributes to 8.7% in agriculture and 1.7% in GDP of the
country. In 2019-2020, despite covid19 and locust attacks Pakistan managed to produce 24.9
million tons of wheat. The area for wheat cultivation also increased by 1.7%.
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Rice: It is very important crop, both in terms of food and cash. It is the second most consumed
food of the country and the second major export of the country after cotton. It contributes to
3.1% of agriculture and 0.6% to the GDP of the country. In 2020, Pakistan produced 7.4 million
tons of rice and the area of cultivation of rice also increased by 8%.
Cotton: It is the most important cash crop of Pakistan and is also considered to be the backbone
of Pakistan’s economy. It contributes to 4.1% of agriculture and 0.8% to the GDP of the
country, in 2019-20 Pakistan produced 9.1 million bales of cotton, the production of cotton
decreased by almost 7% from the output of 2018-19. The area of cultivation was increased by
6.5% but the overall output decreased in 2019-20.
Sugarcane: It is another cash crop cultivated in Pakistan, sugarcane is very important for the
sugar producing and sugar related industries in the country. Sugarcane contributes to 2.9% of
agriculture and 0.6% to the GDP of the country, in 2019-20, the production of sugarcane was
decreased by 0.4% and the area under cultivation was decreased by 5.6%, this decrease in
cultivation area justifies the decrease in overall output.
Maize: After wheat and rice, it is the 3rd important grain of the country. Maize contributes to
2.9% of total agriculture and 0.6% to the GDP of Pakistan. The area of cultivation for Maize
was increased by 2.9% in 2019-20 and its production increased by 7%, this increase in
production was due to more area being allocated for its cultivation as well as better seeds.
3.2. Minor Crops
The minor crops include, bajra, tobacco, gram, barley, jowar, pulses, onions, chilies etc. Apart
from these Pakistan also has oilseeds which include sunflower, canola, mustard and cottonseed
oil. The production of gram, bajra and tobacco increased by 21.9%, 9.7% and 5.8% in the year
2019-20. Whereas the production of jawar declined by 19.5%. As, for the pulses the production
of moong increased by 12.6%, mash decreased by 5.8% and the production of masoor neither
increased, nor decreased. Production of chilies increased by 34.6%, due to the good weather
conditions while sowing the seeds but the production of onions and potatoes decreased by 1%
and 5.3% in the year 2019-20. Whereas the production of oil from oilseeds was only 0.5 million
tons. The tables below show the production and area of cultivation for minor crops during the
last two years.
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4 . Livestock and Poultry
4.1.Livestock
Livestock is the largest sector of agriculture. In Pakistan more than 8million families are
directly or indirectly linked with this sector and it is the source of 35-40% of their income, this
sector also contributes to 3.1% of our exports. Livestock contributes to 60.6% of total
agriculture is based upon livestock and it contributes to 11.7% of our country’s GDP. Globally,
Pakistan is fourth largest producer of milk (Buchholz, 2019) and in 2019-20 the country
produced 61.6 million tons of milk, the country also produced 4.7 million tons of meat in the
same year. Since, it is the largest sector of agriculture the government has a separate
development strategy for this sector which aims at the development of private sector,
improving the way breeding of animals, improving health of the animals, etc.
The table below shows estimated milk and meat production of Pakistan during the last three
years
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4.2. Poultry
Poultry is a subsector of livestock, currently the investments in this sector has reached
700billion rupees and the sector provides jobs to around 1.5 million people in the country.
According to a report, Pakistan stands at 11th position on global poultry production. This sector
balances the overall, meat production of the country as 35% of the total meat comes from
poultry and this sector grew by 9.1% in 2019-20. The government recently changed the poultry
production in a shed system which is completely controlled and this transformation had a
positive effect on poultry production as the sector showed a growth in the recent year. The
government has a separate Poultry development strategy which aims to control disease,
improving poultry practices etc.
The table below shows the estimated production both commercial and private of poultry goods
in last 3 years.
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4.3. Fisheries
It is one of the important subsectors of agriculture, as it balances out pressure on livestock and
poultry and also plays an important role in food security. It is the source of income for the
people living in coastal areas of Pakistan. It has 0.4% share in GDP but its impact is way larger
due to the export earnings we get from this sector. There are two types of fisheries i.e. marine
and inland. In 2091-20 the total fisheries production was approximately 701762 metric tons. In
the same year Pakistan also exported Rs 49528 million worth of fishes and fish products to
European Union, china, Malaysia, Thailand etc. The overall increase in production, in
comparison to 2018-19 was 9.7%, whereas the overall increase in the exports of fish and fish
related products was 2.7%
The table below shows the export of fishes and fish products to European Union in the year
2019-20.
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4. 4. Forestry
Only 5.01% area of Pakistan consists of forest, it shows that Pakistan does not have sufficient
forests. It may be due to the climate of the country, since most parts of the country has arid
climate. The country has 4.51 million hectares of forest, in which 3.44 millions of forests are
on government owned land, the rest are on private owned lands. The share of forestry in
agriculture is only 2.1%. There are different types of forests found in Pakistan, they include
Himalayan forests, Chirr pine forests, Scrub forests, Tropical thorn forests, Mangrove forest,
Riverine forests, Mazri palm forests and Oak forests. These forests provide us with wood, non-
wood forest products like honey, gum, herbs, oils etc. They also provide us with medicinal
plants, Pakistan has around seven hundred plants that are important for medicines. (Forestry
sector review: Pakistan 2019, 2020).
5. Problems faced by Agricultural sector of Pakistan
1. Low investments in Fisheries
Only 2% of Pakistan’s GDP is based upon fisheries sector, this sector is often neglected and
no such investments are made to develop this sector. Pakistan has a coastal line of 990km, most
of this area is in Baluchistan where no development projects are made. More than 80% of
fishermen are illiterate and they use their old ways of Fishing. They have wooden boats and
they throw nets in the water to catch fishes, which is time consuming as well as they get little
to no fishes with this method and stay in the sea for weeks. Fisheries is an important subsector
of agriculture which has the potential to increase our exports, but it is often neglected.
2. Lack of infrastructure
Most of the cultivation, fishing, livestock and poultry practices happen in rural areas of
Pakistan. The rural area is very underdeveloped due to which after cultivating the crops, when
the farmers store it in the warehouses which are not developed enough to stay intact during
rain/floods, the crops stored there are destroyed. For livestock and poultry, the animal do not
get proper sanitization since they do not have controlled modern sheds, which is why animals
get infected with diseases and die. As far as fishing is concerned, there are proper boats,
controlled sheds or ice/refrigerators to store the fishes caught.
3. Lack of Dams
During monsoon season, Pakistan sometimes have severe rainfall which results in flooding,
due to the lack of Dams and water reservoirs. Due to the lack of dams and water reservoirs, the
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rain water cannot be stored and often makes it way to the rural areas where most of the crops
are cultivated. This not only destroys the crops but also destroys the livelihood of people and
decreases the overall agricultural output. Out of Pakistan’s total cultivated area i.e. 22.07
million hectare, 12.52 million hectare is located in the province of Punjab (Land Utilization
Statistics, 2018) for such a large cultivated area, which also witnesses rain, there are only 5
dams in Punjab. This shows that there is a need of more dams, to prevent the water from
entering the cities and destroying the crops.
4. Primitive practices of cultivation, fisheries and livestock
The labor associated with cultivation of crops, raising livestock and fisheries all of them use
primitive methods. The farmers do not have much knowledge of modern ways of farming and
they still are carry forwarding the methods taught by their ancestors. They do not know about
hybrid seeds, inorganic fertilizers etc. The people raising livestock in Pakistan, usually treat
animal diseases by their traditional medicines, they use injections to grow the animal size and
milk production instead of providing animals with a balanced diet, because they do not modern
and humane way of raising animals. The fishermen of our country still use wooden boats and
nets, instead of using modern technology such as sonar to locate fishes.
5. Deforestation
Pakistan is already a country with forest deficiency but due to rising population and
infrastructural projects the load on forest has increased. More timber is needed for the
construction of houses, more forests are cut down for infrastructural projects and overall forests
in Pakistan are cut down, which is very alarming as this deforestation results in climate change
due to which the overall agricultural output decreases.
6. Irrigated and Un-Irrigated Areas Of Pakistan
The irrigation system is responsible for more than 90 percent of the countries agricultural,
which accounts for a significant portion of the country’s GDP. Agriculture, like in many other
nations across the world, is the backbone of the Pakistani economy, and the irrigation system
is a key, and in some cases, the sole, source of food production.
Water is one of the world’s most scarce and valuable resources, and it is also one of the most
easily depleted. Pakistan is an agriculture based country whose economy is heavily reliant on
irrigation.
Irrigation is used to cultivate around 80 percent of the country’s cultivable land. Furthermore,
Pakistan’s irrigation system is often regarded as one of the best in the world, having progressed
from traditional lift irrigation to modernized canal systems throughout the centuries.
Canal irrigation system of Pakistan, lift irrigation, dams, and barrages are just a few of the ways
that are now being used in the country. Indus basin irrigation system of Pakistan is very famous
all around the world.
It goes from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) through Punjab and Sindh, and there is a great deal of
diversity in meteorological characteristics, such as rainfall and temperature, along the way.
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7. Role of Agriculture in economic Development of Pakistan
Source of employment
Pakistan as developing economy the employment on consistent level has much importance. In
this behalf agriculture has much importance because it provides employment directly or
indirectly to the public. Employment directly affects the GSP of economy as well as the per
capita income. With the increase in per capita income living standard increases, higher hygiene
facilities & better education facilities are also increases. All these signs are the factors of
economic development. So we can say that agriculture has a great contribution toward
economic development by providing the employment.
Food requirement
Population growth rate of Pakistan is increasing rapidly. According to UNDP human
development report population growth rate of Pakistan is 2% per year. So with the rapidly
increasing population the food requirement is also increasing rapidly. In this behalf agriculture
is the only the major sector which is the meeting the increasing requirement of food. It also
reduces the import of food from other economies. So we can say that agriculture sector is
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playing very vital role in development of Pakistan by providing the food for massive population
as well as supporting the economic growth.
Contribution in exports
Major exports or cash crops of Pakistan are wheat, rice and cotton. 9.8 billion Bales of cotton
are produced per year. Rice crop is produced 4.3 million ton per year. These agricultural
commodities are exported to various countries against foreign exchange. This foreign exchange
is utilized for the import of industrial or technological equipment’s such as machinery or
automobiles. Further this foreign exchange is utilized to improve the infrastructure of economy
or for improving the other sector of economy like education, health and investments.
Raw material for industries
Industries have great importance for the development of any country specially for developing
economies like Pakistan. Industries need raw material to produce finish goods. In Pakistan
agriculture provides raw material to industries. Cotton is very important agricultural production
which is also major export of Pakistan. It is used as raw material in textile industries. The
production of these textile industries is exported to various countries against foreign exchange.
Live stock is also an agricultural sector. It also plays very important role to export goods by
providing the raw material to various industries like sports goods industries and leather
industries. So in this way agriculture helps to Pakistan economy and its growth toward
development.
Infrastructural development
Infrastructure plays very important role to development of any economy. It is fuel to the
economy development. Well-organised infrastructure is a key to development because of quick
means of transportation of agricultural goods or commodities (raw material or finish goods)
and communication. On distribution purpose of agricultural products good and quick means of
transportation are required this intends to improve the infrastructure rapidly. So agriculture
play important role to the development of transportation for the purpose of distribution of
goods.
Increase in GDP level
Agriculture has huge contribution toward GDP of Pakistan economy. it contributes about 25%
of total GDP, which is larger than other sectors of Pakistan. Increase in GDP shows the
developing progress of the economy. It has played very important role since independence
toward GDP of Pakistan. Now agriculture is the 3rd largest sector of contributing to GDP. Live
stock and fisheries are the huge sector of agriculture in order to providing the employment.
Employment contribute to GDP, it is as with the increase in employment the per capita income
will increase which results to increase in GDP rate of the economy.
Decreasing in rural poverty
Agriculture sector has played very important role in order to reduction of rural poverty. Since
1975 to 2000 the GDP growth rate of agriculture was about 4.1% per year. Green revolution
technology in irrigation, improved seeds and fertilizers played very vital role to increase the
agricultural production which results in increase in GDP. Through this technology farmers with
land gain the opportunity to increase their production. So in this way arable lands became
cultivated lands and farmers got the market of agricultural products against some return.
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Development of banking sector
Agriculture has also contributed a great role toward the development of banking sector. As the
government realized the importance of agriculture, it takes steps to improve the productivity of
crops by providing the credit facilities to the farmers at low interest rates. With utilizing these
credits farmers can produce more and more crops. For this purpose government established the
ZTBL and other financial institutes for the provision of credit facilities. So in this way
development of banking sector takes place.
Farm mechanization
Introduction of farm mechanization in agricultural sector had played very effective role in the
development of economy. With the use of modern machinery in agricultural lands causes more
and high quality production of crops. So the provision of raw material to the industries
increases. Due to increase in productivity level the export rate of major export crops is
increased which causes foreign exchange and economic development.
Role of dairy farming
Dairy farming from agricultural sector has also played a great role in economic development.
Livestock or dairy farming has huge contribution toward economic growth. The annual protein
per capita is 18 kg of meat and 155 litters of milk. This is the highest rate in South Asia. Milk
and meat and their byproducts have a good market. Farmers can receive a good return by
producing and providing these products to the market. This process results into increase in per
capita income as well as increase in national income of the economy.
Role of textile industries
In economic development textile industries plays very important role. These industries totally
depend on agriculture production in raw form. Cotton is the major crop which is used as raw
material for these industries for production purpose. Further these products are exported to
many economies against foreign exchange. So cotton as raw material from agriculture side
contributes toward increase in NI (National Income). Textile industries also provide
employment level which increases the per capita income of the person. So we can say that
contribution of textile industries in the development of economy has much importance.
Role of sugar industries
Sugar industry is also one of the major sectors of economy which has great importance
according to development of economy. This is totally agricultural based industry. Sugar cane
is produced on very large scale in many areas of Pakistan. This further supplies to sugar
industries for the production of sugar and other by products which has great market. As large
scale industries these also helps to provide employment level to the public. This results into
increase in per capita income as well as improves living standards.
Rice Export Corporation
Many areas of Pakistan have much importance according to the production of rice crop. In
some areas the world most famous rice crop is produced. A huge quantity is exported to many
economies against foreign exchange. This foreign exchange is further utilized in import of
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some other products like modern technology or machinery or this is utilized for the
improvement of infrastructure of the economy.
Role of fishery
Fishing industry plays very important role in the development of national economy. With a
coastline of 814 km Pakistan has enough resources for that remains to fully development. This
is also the major export of Pakistan.
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