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Agriculture in pakistan
Pakistan is a very important agriculture country . Due to its production and land quality it is referred as a sparrow of gold as India. In Pakistan, the most agricultural province is Punjab where wheat and cotton are the most grown.
Agriculture Statistics in Pakistan:
Agriculture constitutes the largest sector of our economy. Majority of the population, directly or indirectly, dependent on this sector. It contributes about 24 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and accounts for half of employed labour force and is the largest source of foreign exchange earnings.
It feeds whole rural and urban population. Realizing its importance, planners and policy makers are always keen to have reliable area and production statistics of agricultural crops well in time. Policy makers primarily need accurate and timely statistics for the important crops such as wheat, cotton, rice, sugarcane, maize etc. However, in recent years, due to persistent hikes in the prices of essential commodities like pulses, onions, potatoes, chillies and tomatoes these crops have also gained in economic importance.
High source of economy:
Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the World. It is the second largest Muslim population next to Indonesia. It started as a poor country but four decades after in additional to economic reforms resulted in stronger economy. The biggest contributor in 1947 was the agriculture sector. It used to be the strongest and most important economic sector.
Today, Agriculture in Pakistan remains to be a large contributor to the country’s economic make up but the manufacturing industry is slowly growing its share. Other sectors like food processing, textile, chemical manufacturing and iron and steel now have strong contribution to the national economy in recent years.
Agriculture in Pakistan now contributes 23% to the national economy. As far as employment rate is concerned, 44% of the labour force in Pakistan works for the agriculture sector.
Agriculture in Pakistan used to contribute 53% of the national economy but has now declined to 23% when the manufacturing industry is going up to as much as 55% of the national GDP.
As mentioned, agriculture remain to be an important economic contributor as in fact Pakistan is the largest producers and suppliers of agricultural products according to the 2005 Food and Agriculture Organization. Pakistan likewise ranks high with respect to farm output. It is the fifth in the Muslim world and worldwide it ranks within the two twenty farm output contributors.
crops:
Important agricultural crops in Pakistan are the following:
- Wheat – it is the largest contributory crop of Pakistan to the country’s economy.
- Sugarcane
- Cotton
- Rice
- Chickpea
- Apricot
- Milk
- Onion
- Date Palm
- Mango
- Tangerine
- Oranges
Livestock:
Livestock is likewise important in the Agriculture sector of Pakistan. Important livestock products of Pakistan are following:
- Cattle
- Buffalo
- Sheep
- Goat
- Camel
Livestock by-product that helps in the agriculture sector of Pakistan includes the following:
- Beef
- Milk
- Mutton
- Poultry
Fishery:
Fishery produces jobs for the informal sector and contributes to the national economy. Fishery is likewise helpful in the agricultural sector of Pakistan.
Fish harbours in Pakistan:
- Karachi Fisheries Harbour in the province of Sindh
- Korangi Fish Harbour, which is being managed by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock
- Karachi Fish Harbour which provides 90% of fish and seafood requirement of Pakistan
- Pasni Fish Harbour which is in the province of Baluchistan
- Gwadar Fish Harbour on the other hand is being managed by the Federal Ministry of Communication
Even with the obvious decline in the economic contribution of Agriculture in Pakistan, it remains to be an important sector and may still improve in the future. This is possible because of the fact that 25% of Pakistan land is under cultivation and is still watered by the national irrigation. Pakistan has the largest irrigation system in the world to supply its agricultural sector. This is because of the huge dependence of Pakistan to the agricultural sector in the past decades.
Unemployment in Pakistan will improve if those under cultivated arable land will be productive. The economic status will improve and likewise the employment rate will improve greatly if the agricultural sector will be further developed.
