Agriculture

Importance of Agriculture
Agriculture is backbone and the largest sector of Pakistan's economy, which plays
a very important role in its development.
It contributes more than 21% to GDP and employees 45%(2012-13) of the total
employed labor force.
It provides food i.e. wheat, rice, pulses, vegetables, fruit and other items for
growing population of the country.
Agriculture also contributes to growth as a supplier of raw materials to industry as
well as market for industrial products.
It provides raw material such as cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, cottonseed, edible oil
seeds, citrus fruits, leather, wool, wood and other items to various industries.

Importance of Agriculture
Agriculture alone will not be enough to massively reduce poverty, but it has proven
to be uniquely powerful for that task.
Using agriculture as the basis for economic growth in the agriculture-based
countries requires a productivity revolution in smallholder farming.
The road to poverty alleviation, particularly rural poverty, passes through
agriculture.
Three of every four poor people in developing countries live in rural areas 2.1
billion living on less than $2 a day and 880 million on less than $1 a day and
most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Promoting agriculture is
imperative for meeting the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty and
hunger by 2015.

Main Features of Agriculture

Main source of food supply
Provides employment opportunities.
Major source of national income.
Provides raw material for industries.
Good market for agricultural machinery and equipment.
Market for fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides
Main source of foreign exchange earnings.
Expands industrial goods market.

What can Agriculture do for

Development?
Agriculture has features that make it a unique instrument for development.
Agriculture contributes to development in many ways. It contributes to
development as an economic activity and as a livelihood, thus making the sector a
unique instrument for development.
As an economic activity, it can be a source of growth for the national economy.
a provider of investment opportunities for the private sector, and
a prime driver of agriculture-related industries and the rural nonfarm economy.
As a livelihood Agriculture is a source of livelihoods for 86 percent of rural
people. It provides jobs for 1.3 billion small holders and landless workers, a
sort of farm-financed social welfare

Crop Seasons in Pakistan

There are two principal crop seasons in Pakistan namely Rabi and Kharif.
Rabi, which begins in October-December and ends in April-May.Wheat, gram,
tobacco, rape seed, barley and mustard are Rabi crops.
Kharif, sowing season begins in April-June and harvesting during OctoberDecember. Rice, sugarcane, cotton, maize, bajra and jowar are Kharif crops,

Classification of Crops:
Food Crops: These crops are the main source of our food these are wheat, rice,
maize, bajra, jawar, barley and gram.
Cash Crops: These crops are the source of earning. Export of these crops brings
foreign exchange. These are cotton, sugarcane and tobacco.
Oil Seeds: These provides the raw material for edible oil. These are the source of
earning as well as the ingredient of our food.
Other Crops: These are fruits and vegetables. These are essential for our food. We
are also earning lots of foreign exchange with the export of fruits and vegetables

Crop Sistuation:
Important Crops, such as wheat, rice, maize,
cotton and sugarcane account for 25.2 % of the
value added in overall agriculture and 5.4% to
GDP.
The other crops account for 12.3% of the value
added in overall agriculture.
Livestock contributes 55.4% to agricultural value
added much more than the combined contribution
of important and other crops(37.6 %)

Important Crops:
Cotton

Cotton is the most important cash crop of Pakistan in terms of area and value
addition.

It is the main foreign exchange earnings for the country with the production
of 13.0 million cash return to the farmers.

It supplies raw material to the textile industry and provides employment to the
people living in both rural and urban areas.

Its contribution is 1.4% to GDP(2013-14)

Important Crops:
Sugarcane:

Sugarcane crop serves as a major raw material for production of white sugar and gur
is also a cash crop.

Its share in value added in agriculture is 3.4% and in GDP 0.7%(2013-14)

Sugarcane was cultivated on an area of 1173 thousand hectors during the

year 2013-14.

The higher sugarcane production is the result of increase in area, timely rains, easy
availability of fertilizer and pesticides and attractive prices of sugarcane offered by
the millers.

Important Crops:
Rice:

Rice is the 2nd largest food crop in Pakistan.

It is now a major export item accounting for 6.1% of total export earnings over the
last five years and contributes 1.2% to GDP.
The Government of Pakistan is taking effective measures to increase the yield,
production quality and export of rice.
Research efforts are continuing on developing high yielding basmati and Iris
varieties.
Emphasis is also being laid on agronomic research as well as on improved
extension services fertilizer use, direct seeding etc.
The flow of inputs and credits is also being substantially increased. Spray is also
provided to the rice growers at subsidized rates.

Important Crops:
Wheat:

Wheat is the principal food crop of the people.

It occupies an important position in farming policies.
The area under wheat crop was 9039 thousand hectares and wheat output stood
at 25.3 million tons and it contributed 10.3% to value added in agriculture and 2.2
% to GDP(2013-14).
The production of Wheat stood at 25.3 million tonnes (2013-14).
The area and yield of wheat has gradually increased in Pakistan due to the
introduction of new wheat varieties, improved agronomic practices, increased water
availability and improved water use efficiency greater use of fertilizer wide spread
use of mechanical implements, better storage facilities and a support price policy
and favorable weather conditions.

Important Crops:

The agriculture of Pakistan is to face another big challenge from the World Trade
Organization regime (WTO) from the year 2005.
According to the WTO agreement on agriculture, it is necessary for each country,
to provide market access to international commodities and to do away with
domestic and export subsidies.
Pakistan will now have to take steps to minimize the cost of production of crops
and also maintain quality of goods to compete in the international market.
The production of wheat in 2006-07 is highest in the history of country. Pakistan
now is not only self sufficient in wheat but is also in a position to export the surplus
wheat to other countries.

Important Crops:
Maize:

Maize is an important food grain as well raw material for edible oil production.
It is also used to produce starch and poultry food mixes.
The total area under maize was 1117 thousand hectares in the year 2013-14 which
has doubled since independence.
More than half of the crop is growth in NWFP and almost all the remainder in
Punjab.
The total production during 2013-14 was 4527 thousand tones.
The main reason for the poor performance in this crop is the lack of adequate seed
supplies and inadequate farm practices.
Efforts to remove existing constraints are urgently required to increase the
production of this valuable crop

Other Crops:
During 2012-13 the production of Gram, the largest Rabi pulses crop in Pakistan
stood at 673 thousand tonnes, against 284 thousand tonnes of last year showing an
increase of about 137% due to increase in area and favorable weather condition,
while production of Bajra increased 2 %.
This is in contrast to other crops like Jawar, Rape seed & Mustard, Barley and
Tobacco showed a decline in the production of 10.9 %, 6.7 %, 6.1% and 1 %
respectively in 2012-13 as compared to the corresponding last year