INTRODUCTION:

Pakistan has a semi-industrialized economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector.

Agriculture is an extremely important sector of Pakistan’s economy. It plays a vital role
and lays down the foundation for economic development and growth in this country. The
country’s economy was the 23rd largest in the world in 2018 in terms of nominal Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). Agriculture contributes more than 21% to the GDP and
provides employment to 45% of the total labour force of the country. It provides raw
material to the industrial sector on one side and is a market of industrial products on the
other side. In the export earnings, direct as well as indirect share of agriculture is very
high. Thus, agriculture plays a multidimensional role in the economy of Pakistan.
According to the Labour Force Survey of 2017-18 conducted by Pakistan Bureau of
Statistic, 39% of the country’s labour force is engaged in agriculture (30.2 percent males
and 67.2 percent females). In total, the agriculture sector contributes 18.5% to the
country’s GDP. Almost 64 % of the population of Pakistan resides in rural areas and
earns its livelihood, directly or indirectly, from agricultural activities e.g. crop cultivation,
livestock rearing, labour in agriculture, agriculture input supply, transportation of
agricultural output to the market etc. Therefore, development of agriculture is
synonymous to the development of the country.
Pakistan is also amongst the world’s top ten producers of wheat, cotton, sugarcane,
mango, dates and kinnow oranges, and is ranked 10th in rice production. Major crops
(wheat, rice, cotton and sugar cane) contribute around 4.9 per cent, while minor crops
contribute 2.1 percent to the country’s total GDP.
Livestock sector contributes 11 per cent to the country’s GDP (60.5 per cent in
agriculture sector) and employs approximately 35 million people. Fisheries and forestry
sectors each contribute an estimated 0.4 per cent to the GDP (2.1 per cent in
agriculture sector).
In addition to providing food to consumers and fibers to domestic industries, the
agricultural sector is also a source of scarce foreign exchange earnings and it provides
a market for industrial goods. However, severe water shortages, in combination with
salt-affected soils, soil erosion, low-yielding varieties, and the limited use of modern
farming technologies, have resulted in relatively low crop yields (Alam and Naqvi 2003).
In the meantime, Pakistan has one of the highest population growth rates in the Asia–
Pacific region (2.4 percent annually). In order to attain food security for this fast-growing
population, food production needs to grow by at least the same rate as the population.
Agricultural growth rates of at least 5 to 6 percent are required to reduce the country’s
poverty at a substantial level. Because land and water resources are becoming
increasingly scarce in Pakistan, this agricultural production growth will need to take
place through increasing yields and crop intensification (Alam and Naqvi 2003). This will
require the broad dissemination of new and improved technologies, and agricultural
research and development (R&D) is the channel through which this can occur.
Investments in agricultural R&D are, therefore, important in achieving higher agricultural
growth in developing countries such as Pakistan.

STUDY AREA:
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is located in South Asia. Covering a total area of
796,095 km2, Pakistan shares 6,774-kilometres of land border with Afghanistan (to the
west), China (to the northeast), India (to the east) and Iran (to the south west) and has a
1,046-kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south.
Pakistan is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in the
northwest, and also shares a maritime border with Oman.
Pakistan is the world’s sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 220
million people. Around 64% of the population (136 million) lives in rural areas. The most
populous city is Karachi (15 million people), followed by Lahore (11.1 million) and
Faisalabad (3.8 million), whereas Islamabad (the Capital city of Pakistan) has a
population of around 1.0 million.
Created in 1947, Pakistan is a federal parliamentary republic consisting of four
provinces (Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh) and three federal
territories (Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the Islamabad Capital Territory and Gilgit
Baltistan). Pakistan is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a similar
variation in its geography and wildlife. Climate varies from northern arid high desert at
5000 meter altitude, to southern coastal sub-tropical.

LITEARTURE REVIEW:
Pakistan is one of the largest countries in Asia in terms of land area and population. The country
covers a large variety of agro-ecological zones ranging from coastal areas in the south to the
Himalayan Mountains in the north; hence it has great capacity for producing a wide range of
food commodities. Most of Pakistan is classified as arid or semi-arid, so the agricultural sector is
highly dependent on water supply through either irrigation or water harvesting. Pakistan’s
agricultural area was irrigated (FAO 2006). Pakistan has the largest network of irrigation canals
in the world, distributing water from the three major basins in Punjab province. The most
important crops produced in Pakistan are wheat, sugarcane, cotton, and rice. Combined, they
accounted for more than three-quarters of total crop output. Wheat is the main staple food in
Pakistan and it is by far the country’s largest food crop in terms of production volume. In 2005,
Pakistan produced more wheat than all of Africa and nearly as much as all of South America
(FAO 2006). Cotton is not only an export crop that earns foreign exchange, but also a provider
of raw material to the local textile industry. In 2005, cotton production contributed 2 percent to
Pakistan’s GDP. Rice is an important food cash crop and also one of Pakistan’s principal exports.
Sugarcane is a major raw material for producing both white sugar and gur (jaggery). Out of the
total area of 79.6 million hectares, 22.1 million hectares are cultivated; the rest of
the territory is comprised of culturable waste, densely populated forests and
rangelands. Cropped area constitutes 23.3 million hectares, while forests cover 4.6
million hectares of the total land. The country has the world’s largest contiguous
irrigation system with almost 80 percent of the cultivated area irrigated.

REFRENCES:

https://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_18/02-Agriculture.pdf

https://www.fao.org/pakistan/our-office/pakistan-at-a-glance/en/

https://www.pbs.gov.pk/content/agricultural-census-2010-pakistan-report

https://asti.cgiar.org/pdf/PakistanCR.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Pakistan

https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/evaluation-document/35930/files/
agriculture-management-pak.pdf