In 2012 more BT varieties were approved by the government of Pakistan; however these varieties do not express the most recent technology.⁶

The results from the Kleffmann Group amis® study indicates, that BT-121 is the most popular cotton variety, cultivated on 21% of the cotton area in Pakistan. On the provincial level, BT-121 seems to be very popular in Punjab (24% of the cultivated area), whereas in Sindh it covers 11% of the area.

In general it can be addressed that due to the adoption of BT technology, farmers could reduce their input costs for especially bollworm sprays (Bollworms or in general chewing pests are very challenging to control and cause massive destruction to the cotton crop), whereas the seed cost increased, but the decline for the crop protection product costs was higher, so in total it was a profitable adoption for the farmers in Pakistan.⁶ On the other hand the market for crop protection products against sucking pests, such as white fly is still significant, due to the easy possibility to be control such pests by strong agrochemical products.⁷

Besides cotton, rice and maize are two of the crops becoming more prominent in Pakistan.

Rice is on the one-hand the second most important food crop after wheat but on the other hand a very interesting cash crop for farmers. The recent development shows the increase of 3.6% of the cultivated area during the year of 2014 in comparison to the previous year. Rice was under 2.9 Million HA cultivation in Pakistan during the 2014 season.⁸ Its contribution to the agrochemical industry is around 12%.⁹ It is important to state that Pakistan is one of the two known countries producing high quality of fine aromatic (basmati) rice for the domestic and global market and therefore the availability of quality inputs (varieties, agrochemicals, fertilizers etc.) is essential to meet the domestic as well as the global standards.

Maize is currently one of the most profitable agricultural crops in the country. It is planted in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (mainly rain-fed) and Punjab. In the season of 2014-15 the production decreased by 5%, mainly due to less sown area in comparison to previous seasons.1 However according to the projection of experts few years back the maize production continuously grew until the last season of 2013-2014.10 For the Maize production, seed has been and still is the most important limiting factor; only 34% of improved seed is available in Pakistan.¹⁰ Therefore the potential for the seed companies by offering high quality seed is huge. Currently farmers in Pakistan are urging the government of Pakistan to approve GM or BT Maize varieties, for commercial farming, but no decisions have been made until now.

Besides the above mentioned crops also wheat, sugar cane, potatoes, fruits (especially Mangoes and Citrus) and vegetables are very important to farming in Pakistan.

Although Pakistan is an important player for global agricultural production for various crops such as cotton, wheat and rice, with its huge infrastructure for irrigation and its favorable climatic conditions, it is still away from the global and average yields per HA for its major crops. An illustration of the yields per HA from the main crops of Pakistan in global and different regional comparison (i.e. Europe, Africa and Asia) are demonstrated in the following (see chart 2).¹⁰ The message of the chart is, that Pakistan in comparison to global or regional averages is underperforming in the production for its major crops, due to low level of yields. For all demonstrated crops its average is below the Global, Asian and European yield average.

It is clear that with better farm management and practices, especially using quality seed and quality crop protection products and the governmental and institutional support it will be able to feed its growing population but also contribute to the wellbeing of its farmers.

Source:

¹Pakistan Economic Survey 2014-15; ²World Bank Data 2014; ³www.agripunjab.gov.pk; ⁴Agriculture Census 2010 Pakistan; ⁵Bhatti et al. 2009; ⁶Nazli et al. 2012; ⁷Rao 2009; ⁸FAOSTAT; ⁹amisAgriGlobe; Tariq and Iqbal 2010;

¹ CIA World Factbook; ²World Bank Data 2014; ³FAOSTAT; ⁴amis®Agriglobe®; ⁵Ministry of Agriculture 2010; ⁶James 2011; ⁷CNBC TV Program from 19.01.2013; ⁸Institutes of Pesticides Formulation & Technology; ⁹Agricultural Census (2005-06 &2010-11)

India is currently one of the fastest growing economies of the world. Measured by its country size, India is ranked at 7th position and by its population, which is estimated to be around 1.2 billion people, it ranks 2nd at the global comparison.¹ Keeping the large population in mind, one can assume the importance and role of agriculture within the Indian economy. On the one side agricultural production is the key for the national food security and on the other 68% of the population still lives in rural areas by employing 50% of the total labor force.² Besides that agricultural production is a major supplier of raw materials to the industry, especially in the case of cotton.

The value added by agriculture to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is around 18% with an annual growth of 1%.² In total approximately 10% of India’s total export earnings are based on its agricultural sector.

One of the biggest resources of India is its arable land. With approximately 157 Million HA of arable land India ranks 2nd on the global comparison. Although India has a large arable area for its crop production, but crop yields are generally low in comparison with other countries (see Graphic); two main identified factors for the low yields according to experts are lack of adequate water supply and a poor rural infrastructure. In terms of total irrigated area, India ranks first,3 which is 41% of its arable area. The majority of the crop area in India depends on rainfall, where the monsoon season plays a significant role for the agricultural output.

The farm sizes in India are very small and tend to decline. The recent Agricultural Census (2010-11) reported that the average farm size in India is around 1.16 HA. In the last Census (2005-06), it was around 1.23 HA. 85% of the farms in India are below 2 HA and cover 44% of the operated area. Whereas the farms between 2 – 10 HA accounts for 14% by covering 45% of the area. The relatively large holdings (10 HA and above) account for 1% only but covering 11% of the total operated area.

Basically, India has two crop seasons, one “Kharif” (summer season, mainly affected by monsoon) and “Rabi”. Similar to the agricultural production in the region, “Kharif” crops are mainly rice, cotton, sugarcane and maize and main “Rabi” crops are cereals and oil seed crops, i.e. mustard and rape. As already indicated above the majority of the crop area in India depends on rain, whereas around 65 Million HA are equipped with irrigation. This is 41% of the arable area and besides that the biggest irrigated area worldwide.³

In Table 3 and 4 a short overview of the main agricultural facts and crops are highlighted for India.