Agriculture in Pakistan

In collection to achieve full employment and pull ahead its entire state above the s behindtiness line by the grade devil hundred6-07, Pakistan ineluctably to create superfluous employment for b down(p) gear cardinal persons and raise the incomes of trillions of on a lower floor-employed persons. This report presents a pro guanineme to achieve these goals utilizing the knowledge bases competitive wages in labour-in gosive inelegant fruits and solelyied industries. Misfortunes can happen to any(prenominal) truly good products. One of the major reasons for practically(prenominal) mishappenings, is that industries and organizations fail to objectiveize the sizeableness of a strong-planned suffice of sweet or brea topic product ripening.They do not confine it off that wobble is the only constant thing in this foundation and as trends change it is consequential to change their products along with it too. The objectives of the program ar to double clownish w atomic cast 18 in ten eld, achieve expel nutritional self-sufficiency for the unsophisticated, and cede billions in trades of sugar, fruits, veggies, silk and cotton textiles. The program will gene yard a minimum development account of to a greater extent than 4% in the out cut backish sphere. New changes, argon the lifeblood of companies.When firms do not change their level of achievement to extend to the requirements of changing consumer desires, judicature regulations completion and a host of separate factors market office and profit unremarkably adjust. The life of a late industry a great deal depends on how it conceives and produceses. INTRODUCTION husbandry Pakistans principal innate(p) resources are arable shore up, pee, and extensive ingrained gas reserves. roughly 28% of Pakistans arrive cut arena is to a lower place kitchen-gardening and is body of piddleed by unmatchable of the mammothst irrigation constitutions in the worl d. gardening accounts for close to(predicate) 24% of gross national product and employs well-nigh 44% of the savvy force. The intimately central crops are cotton, wheat, strain, sugarcane, fruits, and vegetables, which together account for to a greater extent than 75% of the value of total crop output. Despite intensive farawayming practices, Pakistan dust a net nutriment importer. Pakistan exports strain, cotton, fish, fruits, and vegetables and imports vegetable oil colour, wheat, cotton, pulses, and consumer solid nutritions. The scotch importance of husbandry has declined since independency, when its parting of GDP was al many 53%.Following the pathetic harvest of 1993, the politics introduced husbandry assist policies, including incrementd support prices for more a(prenominal) a(prenominal) clownish commodities and expanded availability of hoidenish credit. From 1993 to 1997, real re identification number in the boorish welkin fair(a)d 5. 7 % solely has since declined to less than 4%. Agricultural reforms, including change magnitude wheat and oil-rich seed labor, play a central consumption in the governments economic reform package. manipulation of agribusiness in Pakistan.ARTICLE (September 20 2006) culture is a way of life, a tradition, which for centuries has ca economic consumption the economic life, culture and the thought of the people. The importance of agriculture in the development of a democracy cannot be ignored. Growth of agriculture is precise much essential for achieving self-assertion in major food items. Pakistan with a total bring in area of 79. 61 one thousand thousand hectares is termed as an rustic country beca intent agrarian empyrean is the single giantst empyrean of the country which not only countenances food to 140 one thousand meg people however to a fault provides employment to rough 48 % of the custody.Beside, it in addition provides raw material to the industry, cont ributes close to 60% to export earnings, and provides the livelihood for 70% unsophisticated cosmos. In short the agriculture celestial sphere can rightly be called the backbone of our economy, as it contributes rough Rs800 billion, closely one-fourth to the total GDP i. e. bestow 25% of the GDP. However, the sector, which possesses the probable to be a lead sector in accelerating the economic growth and reducing poverty in Pakistan, has authorized less attention from sequential governments in the past 57 years than different issues.According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan, this year the agricultural growth target came toss off to 2. 6 part from 4. 1 pctage of the last year i. e. 2004-05. The Survey to a fault attributed the slippage in agriculture to the weak motion of both the major and kid crops. However, the government hesitated to accept its inadequate people attention towards this important sector of the economy. Although, the government announced a com prehensive package for the farmers in June this year, it failed to catch the majority of the farming community as they are expressing their dissatisfaction over the incentives announced.Agriculture is the single grownst sector of the economy. It contributes 24 percent of the GDP employs 48. 4 percent of countrys workforce and is a major source of hostile exchange earnings. About 68% of the population lives in rural Pakistan and depends upon agriculture for sustenance. The mediocre annual growth roam of agriculture during mid-nineties was 4. 5%. The highest growth rate of 11. 7 percent was achieved in 1995-96 generally overdue to increase in cotton, gram, take out and meat fruit. The sector touched the ut al nigh negative growth rate of 5. 3 percent in 1992-93 brinyly due to decrease in cotton and sugarcane intersection.The major crops as wheat, cotton, rice, sugarcane and clavus account for 41% of value added and minor crops 10% in boilersuit agriculture. fund has eme rged as an important sub sector of agriculture. It accounts for 37. 5% of agriculture value added and round 9. 4% of the GDP. Similarly, fisheries play an important persona in case income through export earnings. Agricultural Policy The agricultural sector is highly politicized beca aim the majority of enterowners be in possession of had long political influence. This has resulted in agricultural insurance policy being steered towards supporting the production of majorcash crops much(prenominal) as sugarcane, and exempting almost all agricultural income from taxes. However, pursuit recent discussions with the IMF and institution swear on revenue collection in general, the present government is in the process of re-structuring the agreement to try and increase agricultural taxation. In addition, achieverive governments bring all-embracing considerable support to the sector by providing concessionary financing to farmers for the purchase of agricultural equipment (mainl y tractors) and for structure irrigation and drainpipe brasss.Three year Strategy The Ministry of Agriculture is preparing a rude(a) three-year strategy. This will rivet on the enhanced productiveness of export oriented crops and ensure better merchandising of exportable crops to get maximum prices of the produce. The new strategy will envisages to improve the instruction execution of the agriculture sector including Higher growth rate of agriculture as compared to population growth Food security and self-reliance in food cropsEnhancing the productivity of wheat, rice, oil seeds, cotton and sugarcane Land and peeing development for a sustained agricultural growth Farm input supplies back up by appropriate engineering science to the farmers and at the habituaters end, balanced emphasis on all aspects of agricultural production including strain, fisheries and forestry Improving marketing of agricultural commodities, emphasis on agricultural research to generate innovativ e engineering science including biotechnology for rising per acre gestate of land.Improving the productivity of small farmers while encouraging the large farmers for utilization of sophisticated technology. GROWTH IN AGRICULTURE Agriculture is a rash sector of national economy of Pakistan. The growth in agricultural sector and national economy moves hand in hand. The extensive fluctuations in agricultural growth have greatly influenced national economy. The sixties was a level of green revolution wherein eclipse cultivars of wheat and rice with high derangement of photosynthesis were introduced.This brought a quantum jump in productivity of these cereals. This resulted in an average growth rate of 5. 1% during the decennary. The growth however retard in seventies to 2. 4%. The considerable nationalization policy of the undercover enterprises had an overall negative impact on the economy. In addition on that point was a tedious down in the process of varietals developme nt and their release, paltering their latent. However, the seventies was a period of high public sector investments in agriculture sector.The important institutions careed during this decade are Tarbela Dam, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, rearing and Visit Program of Agricultural Extension, set Certification and Registration Departments/Seed Corporations, On Farm weewee Management and Barani plain stitch Development Programs. In addition cotton plant merchandise Corporation and rice Export Corporation were established during the decade to provide an export standoff to indigenous production.Agriculture in PakistanFarming is Pakistans largest economic activity. In FY 1993, agriculture, and minor(ip) forestry and fishing, contributed 25 percent of GDP and employed 48 percent of the labor force. Agricultural products, particularly cotton yarn, cotton cloth, raw cotton, and rice, are important exports. Although there is agricultural activity in all areas of Pakistan, most crops are grown in the Indus River plain in Punjab and Sindh.Considerable development and intricacy of output has occurred since the archean 1960s however, the country is still far from realizing the large potential yield that the well-irrigated and fertile soil from the Indus irrigation arrangement could produce. The floods of September 1992 showed how vulnerable agriculture is to live agricultural production dropped dramatically in FY 1993. Land Use Pakistans total land area is about 803,940 square kilometers. About 48 million hectares, or 60 percent, is often classified as theatrical roleless for forestry or agriculture consists in general of deserts, band slopes, and urban settlements. whatsoever authorities, however, include part of this area as agricultural land on the basis that it would support whatsoever livestock activity even though it is poor rangeland. Thus, estimates of grazing land vary astraybetween 10 percent and 70 percent of the total area. A con siderable interpretation, for example, categorizes almost all of arid Baluchistan as rangeland for foraging livestock. Government officials listed only 3 million hectares, much often than not in the north, as forested in FY 1992. About 21. 9 million hectares were elegant in FY 1992.Around 70 percent of the cropped area was in Punjab, followed by perhaps 20 percent in Sindh, less than 10 percent in the North-West landmark Province, and only 1 percent in Baluchistan. Since independence, the beat of cultivated land has increased by to a greater extent than than one-third. This working out is largely the result of improvements in the irrigation schema that makes piss available to supererogatory plots. Substantial amounts of plowland have been baffled to urbanization and peelogging, but losings are more than compensated for by additions of new land.In the previous(predicate) 1990s, more irrigation disgorges were undeniable to increase the area of cultivated land. The sc ant rain peeing over most of the country makes about 80 percent of cropping dependent on irrigation. Fewer than 4 million hectares of land, largely in northern Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province, are totally dependent on rainfall. An special 2 million hectares of land are under no irrigated cropping, much(prenominal) as plantings on floodplains as the peeing recedes.No irrigated farming generally gives low yields, and although the technology exists to boost production inviolablely, it is expensive to use and not always readily available. Irrigation In the early 1990s, irrigation from the Indus River and its tributaries constituted the worlds largest contiguous irrigation system, surefooted of irrigate systeming over 16 million hectares. The system includes three major store reservoirs and numerous barrages, headworks, canals, and scattering channels. The total length of the canal system exceeds 58,000kilometers there are an superfluous 1.6 million kilometers of f arm and field ditches. unwrapition dictated portions of the Indus River and its tributaries under Indias control, atomic number 82 to prolonged disputes between India and Pakistan over the use of Indus waters. After nine years of negotiations and technical foul studies, the issue was resolved by the Indus waters Treaty of 1960. After a ten-year transitional period, the accordance awarded India use of the waters of the main eastern tributaries in its territorythe Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej rivers. Pakistan true use of the waters of the Indus River and its western tributaries, the Jhelum and Chenab rivers.After the treaty was signed, Pakistan began an extensive and rapid irrigation construction program, partly financed by the Indus Basin Development investment trust of US$800 million contributed by versatile nations, including the United States, and administered by the World Bank. some(prenominal) immense link canals were built to impart water from western rivers to eastern Punj ab to switch flows in eastern tributaries that India began to divert in accordance with the terms of the treaty. The Mangla Dam, on the Jhelum River, was perfect in 1967.The dam provided the world-class prodigious water storage for the Indus irrigation system. The dam also contributes to flood control, to regulation of flows for some of the link canals, and to the countrys energy come out. At the same time, additional construction was undertaken on barrages and canals. A foster build of irrigation intricacy began in 1968, when a US$1. 2 billion fund, also administered by the World Bank, was established. The key to this phase was the Tarbela Dam on the Indus River, which is the worlds largest earth-filled dam.The dam, completed in the mid-seventies, reduce the destruction of periodic floods and in 1994 was a major hydroelectric generating source. more or less important for agriculture, the dam increases water availability, peculiarly during low water, which usually comes at vituperative growing periods. Despite massive expansion in the irrigation system, many problems remain. The Indus irrigation system was knowing to fit the availability of water in the rivers, to supply the largest area with minimum water invites, and to achieve these objectives at low in action(p) costs with contain technical staff.This system design has resulted in low yields and low cropping intensity in the Indus River plain, averaging about one crop a year, whereas the climate and soils could middling permit an average of almost 1. 5 crops a year if a more sophisticated irrigation ne twork were in place. The imperative need in the 1960s and 1970s to increase crop production for domestic and export markets led to water flows well above designed capacities. Completion of the Mangla and Tarbela reservoirs, as well as improvements in other(a) parts of the system, made larger water flows possible.In addition, the government began installing public metro wells that usual ly discharge into speed levels of the system to add to the available water. The high water flows in parts of the system considerably exceed design capacities, creating stresses and risks of breaches. Nonetheless, many farmers, particularly those with smallholdings and those toward the end of watercourses, suffer because the supply of water is unreliable. The irrigation system represents a profound engineering achievement and provides water to the field that account for 90 percent of agricultural production.Nonetheless, atrocious problems in the design of the irrigation system thwart achieving the highest potential agricultural output. Water perplexity is base largely on objectives and operational procedures dating back many decades and is often inflexible and unresponsive to flowing needs for greater water use efficiency and high crop yields. Charges for water use do not meet operational and maintenance costs, even though range more than doubled in the 1970s and were again increased in the 1980s. farewellly because of its low cost, water is often wasted by farmers.Good water concern is not practiced by government officials, who often assume that investments in somatogenic aspects of the system will automatically yield higher crop production. Government management of the system does not extend beyond the main distribution channels. After freeing through these channels, water is directed onto the field of individual farmers whose water rights are base on long-established social and legal codes. Groups of farmers voluntarily manage the watercourses between main distribution channels and their fields.In effect, the efficiency and effectiveness of water management relies on the way farmers use the system. The exact amounts of water wasted have not been determined, but studies suggest that losses are considerable and perhaps amount to one-half of the water entering the system. Part of the waste results from se pages in the speech communication system. Even greater amounts are credibly lost because farmers use water whenever their turn comes even if the water application is destructive to their crops. The attitude among almost all farmers is that they should use water when available because it may not be available at the abutting scheduled turn.Moreover, farmers have littler pinch of the most productive applications of water during crop-growing cycles because of the drop of research and extension services. As a result, improvements in the irrigation system have not raised yields and output as expected. Some experts believe that drastic changes are needed in government policies and the legal and institutional framework of water management if water use is to improve and that effective changes can result in very large gains in agricultural output. DrainageThe continuous expansion of the irrigation system over the past degree centigrade significantly altered the hydrological balance of the Indus River basin. goop from the syst em and percolation from irrigated fields ca employ the water table to rise, reaching crisis conditions for a substantial area. Around 1900 the water table was usually more than sixteen meters below the rally of the Indus Plain. A 1981 survey found the water table to be within about three meters of the surface in more than one-half the cropped area in Sindh and more than one-third the area in Punjab.In some locations, the water table is much side by side(predicate) to the surface. Cropping is seriously affected over a wide area by poor drainagewaterloggingand by accumulated salts in the soil. Although some drainage was installed before World War II, little attention was give to the growing waterlogging and salinity problems. In 1959 a salinity control and reclamation project was started in a hold area, based on public tube wells, to bring down the water table and take out accumulated salts near the surface, exploitation groundwater for irrigation.By the early 1980s, some thir ty much(prenominal) projects had been started that when completed would irrigate nearly 6. 3 million hectares. By 1993 the government had installed around 15,000 tube wells. tete-a-tete farmers, however, had installed over 200,000 mostly small tube wells, mainly for irrigation purposes but also to lower the water table. Private Wells probably pumped more than five times as much water as public wells. Officials were alive(predicate) of the need for additional spending to prevent still deterioration of the living situation. accent in the 1980s and early 1990s was on rehabilitation and maintenance of existing canals and watercourses, on farm improvements on the farms themselves (including some land leveling to conserve water), and on drainage and salinity in priority areas. Emphasis was also placed on short projects, largely to improve the operation of the irrigation system in ordinance to raise yields. Part of the funding would come from steady increases in water use fees the i ntention is piecemeal to raise water charges to cover operation and maintenance costs.Considerable time and money are needed to realize the full potential of the irrigation system and bring it up to modern standards. Farm Ownership and Land repair At independence Pakistan was a country with a great many small-scale farms and a small number of very large estates. Distribution of landownership was badly skewed. slight than 1 percent of the farms consisted of more than 25 percent of the total agricultural land. many another(prenominal) owners of large holdings were absentee landlords, contributing little to production but extracting as much as possible from the sharecroppers who farmed the land.At the other extreme, about 65 percent of the farmers held some 15 percent of the farmland in holdings of about two hectares or less. Approximately 50 percent of the farmland was cultivated by tenants, including sharecroppers, most of whom had little security and few rights. An additional la rge number of landless rural inhabitants worked as agricultural laborers. Farm laborers and many tenants were extremely poor, uneducated, and undernourished, in sharp origin to the wealth, status, and political power of the landlordelite. After independence the countrys political leaders recognized the need for more equitable ownership of farmland and security of tenancy. In the early 1950s, eclogue governments attempted to eliminate some of the absentee landlords or rent collectors, but they had little success in the face of strong opposition. gage of tenancy was also legislated in the provinces, but because of their dependent position, tenant farmers benefited only slightly.In fact, the reforms created an cash machine of uncertainty in the countryside and intensified the choler between wealthy landlords and small farmers and sharecroppers. In January 1959, accepting the recommendations of a special commission on the subject, General Mohammad Ayub Khans government issued new l and reform regulations that aimed to boost agricultural output, promote social justice, and ensure security of incumbency. A ceiling of about 200 hectares of irrigated land and 400 hectares of nonirrigated land was placed on individual ownership allowance was paid to owners for land surrendered.Numerous exemptions, including title transfers to family members, limited the impact of the ceilings. Slightly fewer than 1 million hectares of land were surrendered, of which a little more than 250,000 hectares were sold to about 50,000 tenants. The land reform regulations made no serious attempt to break up large estates or to lessen the power or privileges of the landed elite. However, the treasures attempted to provide some security of tenure to tenants, consolidate existing holdings, and prevent fragmentation of farm plots.An average holding of about five hectares was considered incumbent for a familys subsistence, and a holding of about twenty to twenty-five hectares was pronounced as a desirable economic holding. In March 1972, the Bhutto government announced further land reform measures, which went into effect in 1973. The landownership ceiling was officially lowered to about five hectares of irrigated land and about twelve hectares of nonirrigated land exceptions were in theory limited to an additional 20 percent of land for owners having tractors and tube wells.The ceiling could also be extended for poor-quality land. Owners of expropriated excess land received no compensation, and beneficiaries were not charged for land distributed. Official statistics showed that by 1977 only about 520,000 hectares had been surrendered, and nearly 285,000 hectares had been redistributed to about 71,000 farmers. The 1973 measure required landlords to pay all taxes, water charges, seed costs, and one-half of the cost of fertilizer and other inputs.It prohibited eviction of tenants as long as they cultivated the land, and it gave tenants first rights of purchase. differen t regulations increased tenants security of tenure and prescribed lower rent rates than had existed. In 1977 the Bhutto government further reduced ceilings on private ownership of farmland to about four hectares of irrigated land and about eight hectares of no irrigated land. In an additional measure, agricultural income became taxable, although small farmers owning ten hectares or fewerthe majority of the farm populationswere exempted.The army regime of Zia ul-Haq that ousted Bhutto neglected to implement these later(prenominal) reforms. Governments in the 1980s and early 1990s avoided significant land reform measures, perhaps because they drew much of their support from landowners in the countryside. Government policies designed to reduce the assiduity of landownership had some effect, but their significance was ticklish to measure because of limited data. In 1993 the most recent agricultural census was that of 1980, which was used to compare statistics with the agricultural c ensus of 1960.Between 1960 and 1980, the number of farms declined by 17 percent and farms reduced in area by 4 percent, resulting in slightly larger farms. This decline in the number of farms was confined to peripheral farms of two hectares or fewer, which in 1980 stand for 34 percent of all farms, constituting 7 percent of the farm hectarage. At the other extreme, the number of very large farms of threescore hectares or more was 14,000both in 1960 and in 1980although the average size of the biggest farms was little in 1980. The number of farms between two and ten hectares increased during this time.Greater use of higher-yielding seeds requiring heavier applications of fertilizers, installations of private tube wells, and mechanization accounted for much of the free away from very small farms toward mid-sized farms, as owners of the latter undertook cultivation instead of lease out part of their land. Observers believed that this trend had go on in the 1980s and early 1990s. In early 1994, land reform remained a controversial and complex issue. Large landowners carry their power over small farmers and tenants, in particular in the interior of Sindh, which has a feudal agricultural establishment.Tenancy continues on a large-scale one-third of Pakistans farmers are tenant farmers, including almost one-half of the farmers in Sindh. Tenant farmers typically give almost 50 percent of what they produce to landlords. Fragmented holdings remain a substantial and widespread problem. Studies indicate that larger farms are usually less productive per hectare or unit of water than littler ones. Cropping Patterns and Production In the early 1990s, most crops were grown for food. shuck is by far the most important crop in Pakistan and is the staple food for the majority of the population.Wheat is eaten most frequently in unleavened swag called chapatti. In FY 1992, wheat was planted on 7. 8 million hectares, and production amounted to 14. 7 million tons. Output i n FY 1993 reached 16. 4 million tons. Between FY 1961 and FY 1990, the area under wheat cultivation increased nearly 70 percent, while yields increased 221 percent. Wheat production is vulnerable to extreme weather, especially in nonirrigated areas. In the early and mid-1980s, Pakistan was self-sufficient in wheat, but in the early 1990s more than 2 million tons of wheat were imported annually.Rice is the other major food grain. In FY 1992, about 2. 1 million hectares were planted with rice, and production amounted to 3. 2 million tons, with 1 million tons exported. Rice yields also have increased sharply since the 1960s following the entryway of new varieties. Nonetheless, the yield per hectare of around 1. 5 tons in FY 1991 was low compared with many other Asian countries. Pakistan has show the production of rice in order to increase exports to the Middle East and thusly concentrates on the high-quality basmati florilegium, although other grades also are exported.The government increased procurement prices of basmati rice disproportionately to encourage exports and has allowed private traders into the rice export business alongside the public-sector Rice Export Corporation. Other important food grains are millet, sorghum, corn, and barley. Corn, although a minor crop, little by little increased in area and production after independence, partly at the disbursement of other minor food grains. Chickpeas, called gram in Pakistan, are the main nongrain food crop in area and production. A number of other foods, including fruits and vegetables, are also grown.In the early 1990s, cotton was the most important commercial crop. The area planted in cotton increased from 1. 1 million hectares in FY 1950 to 2. 1 million hectares in FY 1981 and 2. 8 million hectares in FY 1993. Yields increased substantially in the 1980s, partly as a result of the use of pesticides and the launch in 1985 of a new high-yielding variety of seed. During the 1980s, cotton yields moved f rom well below the world average to above the world average. Production in FY 1992 was 12. 8 million bales, up from 4. 4 million bales ten years earlier.Output fell sharply, however, to 9. 3 million bales in FY 1993 because of the September 1992 floods and insect infestations. Other cash crops include tobacco, rapeseed, and, most important, sugarcane. In FY 1992 sugarcane was planted on 880,000 hectares, and production was 35. 7 million tons. Except for some oil from cottonseeds, the country is dependent on imported vegetable oil. By the 1980s, introduction and experimentation with oilseed cultivation was under way. Soybeans and sunflower seeds appear to be equal crops given the countrys soil and climate, but production was still negligible in the early 1990s.