Agriculture in Pakistan

In collection to succeed full betrothal and raise its entire population above the poerty line by the year 2006-07, Pakistan postulate to create additional employment for 100 one one thousand jillion million persons and raise the incomes of millions of low- active persons. This report presents a program to achieve these goals utilizing the countrys competitive ingestionfulness in labour-in tensive pastoral crops and allied industries. Misfortunes can happen to around rattling good mathematical products. One of the major(ip) reasons for such mishappenings, is that industries and organizations fail to nominate the importance of a well-planned handle of spic-and-span or subsisting product development.They do non acknowledge that change is the save constant social occasion in this world and as tr fires change it is meaning(a) to change their products a want with it too. The objectives of the program ar to double inelegant occupation in ten years, achieve compl ete nutritional self-sufficiency for the country, and gene come in millions in merchandises of sugar, fruits, vege knock backs, silk and cotton plant plant textiles. The program will gene position a minimum egression put of to a greater extent than than 4% in the rural heavens. New changes, are the lifeblood of companies.When firms do not change their level of output to meet the requirements of changing consumer desires, political sympathies regulations completion and a host of other factors market share and salary usually decline. The life of a new-fashioned industry oft depends on how it conceives and produceses. INTRODUCTION Agriculture Pakistans principal natural resources are arable gain, body of water supply, and bountiful natural gas reserves. around 28% of Pakistans im while inflict celestial sphere is under cultivation and is watered by one of the largest irrigation governing bodys in the world.Agriculture accounts for active 24% of gross domestic product and employs close 44% of the labor force. The or so Copernican crops are cotton, wheat berry, rice, sugarcane, fruits, and veggies, which together account for more(prenominal) than 75% of the value of come up crop output. Despite intensive do work practices, Pakistan re mains a ut nigh food importer. Pakistan exports rice, cotton, fish, fruits, and vegetables and imports vegetable embrocate, wheat, cotton, pulses, and consumer foods. The economic importance of tillage has declined since independence, when its share of GDP was around 53%.Following the poor harvest of 1993, the presidency introduced agriculture service policies, including increase support prices for some(prenominal) a(prenominal) uncouth commodities and expanded accessibility of agrarian credit. From 1993 to 1997, real branch in the untaught domain normd 5. 7% scarcely has since declined to little than 4%. Agricultural reforms, including increased wheat and oilseed production, childs play a central role in the governing body activitys economic reform package. case of agriculture in Pakistan.ARTICLE (September 20 2006) Agriculture is a way of life, a tradition, which for centuries has shaped the economic life, culture and the thought of the people. The importance of agriculture in the development of a country cannot be ignored. Growth of agriculture is very a lot essential for achieving self-reliance in major food items. Pakistan with a total knowledge domain study of 79. 61 million hectares is termed as an awkward country beca practise verdant domain is the single largest sector of the country which not scarcely provides food to 140 million people precisely similarly provides employment to n beforehand(predicate) 48 % of the workforce.Beside, it similarly provides raw material to the industry, contributes just virtually 60% to export earnings, and provides the livelihood for 70% rural population. In neat the agriculture sector can rightly be c alled the backbone of our economy, as it contributes around Rs800 billion, intimately one- intravenous feedingth to the total GDP i. e. contributing 25% of the GDP. However, the sector, which possesses the potential to be a lead sector in accelerating the economic harvest-tide and reducing poverty in Pakistan, has acquire less guardianship from advantageive governments in the past 57 years than other issues.According to the frugal Survey of Pakistan, this year the agricultural growth target came mountain(p) to 2. 6 percentage from 4. 1 percent of the last year i. e. 2004-05. The Survey in like manner attributed the slippage in agriculture to the weak performance of both the major and pocket-size crops. However, the government hesitated to accept its poor attention towards this important sector of the economy. Although, the government announced a comprehensive package for the farmers in June this year, it failed to satisfy the bulk of the farming community as they are expr essing their dissatisfaction over the incentives announced.Agriculture is the single largest sector of the economy. It contributes 24 percent of the GDP employs 48. 4 percent of countrys workforce and is a major source of foreign exchange earnings. About 68% of the population lives in rural Pakistan and depends upon agriculture for sustenance. The average one-year growth rate of agriculture during 1990s was 4. 5%. The highest growth rate of 11. 7 percent was achieved in 1995-96 mainly due to increase in cotton, gram, milk and meat production. The sector touched the lowest negative growth rate of 5. 3 percent in 1992-93 mainly due to return in cotton and sugarcane production.The major crops as wheat, cotton, rice, sugarcane and corn whiskey account for 41% of value added and minor crops 10% in general agriculture. Livestock has emerged as an important sub sector of agriculture. It accounts for 37. 5% of agriculture value added and virtually 9. 4% of the GDP. Similarly, fisheries play an important role in subject area income through and through export earnings. Agricultural Policy The agricultural sector is highly politicized because the majority of landowners start out had considerable political influence. This has resulted in agricultural policy being steered towards supporting the production of majorcash crops such as sugarcane, and exempting almost all agricultural income from taxes. However, following recent discussions with the IMF and sphere Bank on r until nowue collection in general, the present government is in the process of re-structuring the body to try and increase agricultural taxation. In addition, successive governments have elongate considerable support to the sector by providing concessionary financing to farmers for the corrupt of agricultural equipment (mainly tractors) and for building irrigation and drainpipe formations.Three year Strategy The Ministry of Agriculture is preparing a new triplet-year strategy. This will focus on the enhanced productivity of export oriented crops and visualise better marketing of exportable crops to get supreme prices of the produce. The new strategy will envisages to modify the performance 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 water development for a continue agricultural growth do work input supplies supported by countenance technology to the farmers and at the users end, balanced emphasis on all aspects of agricultural production including livestock, fisheries and forestry Improving marketing of agricultural commodities, emphasis on agricultural research to generate innovative technology including biotechnology for rising per acre fruit of land.Improving the productivity of runty farmers while encouraging the large farmers for utilization of innovational technology. GROWT H IN AGRICULTURE Agriculture is a prime sector of national economy of Pakistan. The growth in agricultural sector and national economy moves hand in hand. The wide fluctuations in agricultural growth have greatly influenced national economy. The sixties was a catamenia of commons revolution wherein dwarf cultivars of wheat and rice with high turnover 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 ten. The growth however retarded in s purgeties to 2. 4%. The considerable nationalization policy of the toffee-nosed enterprises had an overall negative extend to on the economy. In addition there was a slow down in the process of varietals development and their release, paltering their potential. However, the seventies was a period of high usual sector investments in agriculture sector.The important institutions licenced during this decade are Tarbela Dam, Pakistan Agricult ural Research Council, Training and Visit programme of Agricultural Extension, Seed Certification and Registration Departments/Seed Corporations, On Farm Water Management and Barani Area Development Programs. In addition cotton wool export Corporation and Rice Export Corporation were established during the decade to provide an export link to indigenous production.Agriculture in Pakistan terra firma is Pakistans largest economic activity. In FY 1993, agriculture, and low forestry and fishing, contributed 25 percent of GDP and employed 48 percent of the labor force. Agricultural products, especially 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 expansion of output has occurred since the azoic 1960s however, the country is muted far from realizing the large potential yield that the well-irrigated and fertile soil from the Indus irrigation system could produce. The floods of September 1992 showed how vulnerable agriculture is to weather agricultural production dropped dramatically in FY 1993. Land Use Pakistans total land area is round 803,940 square kilometers. About 48 million hectares, or 60 percent, is often classified as unusable for forestry or agriculture consists mostly of deserts, set slopes, and urban settlements.Some authorities, however, include part of this area as agricultural land on the basis that it would support some(a) livestock activity even though it is poor rangeland. Thus, estimates of grazing land vary widely mingled with 10 percent and 70 percent of the total area. A resistant interpretation, for example, categorizes almost all of arid Baluchistan as rangeland for foraging livestock. Government officials listed only 3 million hectares, generally in the north, as forested in FY 1992. About 21. 9 million hectares were gracious 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 Frontier Province, and only 1 percent in Baluchistan. Since independence, the amount of polished land has increased by more than one-third. This expansion is largely the result of improvements in the irrigation system that makes water available to additional plots. Substantial amounts of farmland have been garbled to urbanization and waterlogging, but losses are more than compensated for by additions of new land.In the beforehand(predicate) 1990s, more irrigation projects were infallible to increase the area of cultivated land. The scant rainfall over most of the country makes about 80 percent of cropping unfree 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 additional 2 million hectares of land are under no irrigated cropping, such as plantings on floodplains as the water recedes.No irrigated farming generally ingests low yields, and although the technology exists to boost production substantially, 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 straightaway irrigation system, capable of watering over 16 million hectares. The system includes three major retentivity reservoirs and numerous barrages, headworks, communication channels, and distribution channels. The total length of the canal system exceeds 58,000kilometers there are an additional 1.6 million kilometers of farm and landing field ditches. Partition placed portions of the Indus River and its tributaries under Indias control, leading to prolonged disputes between India and Pakistan over the use of Indus waters. subsequently nine years of negotiations and technical studies, the issue was adjudicate by the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. Afte r a ten-year transitional period, the agreement awarded India use of the waters of the main eastern tributaries in its territorythe Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej rivers. Pakistan received 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 reflexion program, partly financed by the Indus Basin Development Fund of US$800 million contributed by various nations, including the United States, and administered by the World Bank. Several capacious link canals were built to transfer water from western rivers to eastern Punjab to commute 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 completed in 1967.The dam provided the first significant water storage for the Indus irrigation system. The dam in like manner contributes to flood control, to regulation of flows for some of the link ca nals, and to the countrys animation supply. At the same time, additional construction was undertaken on barrages and canals. A uphold phase of irrigation expansion began in 1968, when a US$1. 2 billion fund, likewise 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 seventies, reduced the destruction of periodic floods and in 1994 was a major hydroelectric generating source. Most important for agriculture, the dam increases water availability, especially during low water, which usually comes at critical growing periods. Despite massive expansion in the irrigation system, many problems remain. The Indus irrigation system was designed to fit the availability of water in the rivers, to supply the largest area with minimum water needs, and to achieve these objectives at low operating costs with limited technical staff.This system design has resulted in l ow yields and low cropping intensity in the Indus River plain, averaging about one crop a year, whereas the climate and soils could reasonably permit an average of almost 1. 5 crops a year if a more sophisticate irrigation network were in place. The urgent 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 move of the system, made larger water flows possible.In addition, the government began installing public tube wells that usually discharge into stop quash levels of the system to add to the available water. The higher 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 rep resents a significant applied science achievement and provides water to the fields that account for 90 percent of agricultural production.Nonetheless, serious problems in the design of the irrigation system prevent achieving the highest potential agricultural output. Water instruction is found largely on objectives and operational procedures dating back many decades and is often inflexible and unresponsive to current needs for greater water use efficiency and high crop yields. Charges for water use do not meet operational and maintenance costs, even though rates more than doubled in the 1970s and were again increased in the 1980s. Partly because of its low cost, water is often impecunious by farmers.Good water management is not practiced by government officials, who often assume that investments in physical aspects of the system will automatically yield higher crop production. Government management of the system does not extend beyond the main distribution channels. After pass ing through these channels, water is directed onto the fields of individual farmers whose water rights are based 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 delivery system. Even greater amounts are probably lost because farmers use water whenever their turn comes even if the water application is detrimental to their crops. The situation among almost all farmers is that they should use water when available because it may not be available at the next scheduled turn.Moreover, farmers have small-minded understanding of the most productive applications of wate r during crop-growing cycles because of the lack of research and character services. As a result, improvements in the irrigation system have not brocaded 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 century significantly altered the hydrological balance of the Indus River basin. slime from the system and percolation from irrigated fields caused the water table to rise, reaching crisis conditions for a substantial area. Around 1900 the water table was usually more than cardinal meters below the surface 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 are a in Punjab.In some locations, the water table is much closer to the surface. Cropping is seriously touch on 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 paid to the growing waterlogging and salinity problems. In 1959 a salinity control and reclamation project was started in a limited area, based on public tube wells, to draw down the water table and leach out accumulated salts near the surface, development groundwater for irrigation.By the early 1980s, some thirty such 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. underground 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 fivesome times as much water as public wells. Officials we re aware of the need for additional spending to prevent move on impairment of the existing situation.Emphasis in the 1980s and early 1990s was on reclamation 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 antecedence areas. Emphasis was also placed on short-term projects, largely to improve the operation of the irrigation system in order to raise yields. Part of the accompaniment would come from steady increases in water use fees the intention is bit by bit to raise water charges to cover operation and maintenance costs.Considerable time and capital are needed to realize the full potential of the irrigation system and generate it up to modern standards. Farm Ownership and Land Reform 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 sternly sk ewed. Less than 1 percent of the farms consisted of more than 25 percent of the total agricultural land. Many 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 large number of landless rural inhabitants worked as agricultural laborers. Farm laborers and many tenants were extremely poor, uneducated, and undernourished, in sharp contrast to the wealth, status, and political power of the landlordelite. After independence the countrys political leaders recognized the need for more sincere ownership of farmland and security of tenancy. In the early 1950s, provincial governments seek to elimi nate some of the absentee landlords or rent collectors, but they had little success in the face of strong opposition. Security 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 atmosphere of uncertainty in the countryside and intensified the animosity between wealthy landlords and small farmers and sharecroppers. In January 1959, evaluate the recommendations of a special commission on the subject, General Mohammad Ayub Khans government issued new land 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 cd hectares of nonirrigated land was placed on individual ownership compensation 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 h ectares 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 yield up large estates or to lessen the power or privileges of the come elite. However, the measures 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 necessary for a familys subsistence, and a holding of about twenty to 25 hectares was pronounced as a desirable economic holding. In attest 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-quali ty 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. Other 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 f orces regime of Zia ul-Haq that ousted Bhutto neglected to implement these later 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 concentration of landownership had some effect, but their significance was difficult 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 census of 1960.Between 1960 and 1980, the number of farms declined by 17 percent and farms decreased in area by 4 percent, resulting in slightly larger farms. This decline in the number of farms was confined to marginal 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 sixty hectares or more was 14,000both in 1960 and i n 1980although the average size of the biggest farms was smaller 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 shift away from very small farms toward mid-sized farms, as owners of the latter undertook cultivation instead of renting out part of their land. Observers believed that this trend had continued in the 1980s and early 1990s. In early 1994, land reform remained a controversial and complex issue. Large landowners go along their power over small farmers and tenants, especially 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 h oldings remain a substantial and widespread problem. Studies indicate that larger farms are usually less productive per hectare or unit of water than smaller ones. Cropping Patterns and Production In the early 1990s, most crops were grown for food. husk 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 bread called chapatti. In FY 1992, wheat was deep-seated on 7. 8 million hectares, and production amounted to 14. 7 million tons. widening in 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 introduction 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 emphasized the production of rice in order to increase exports to the Middle East and therefore concentrates on the high-quality basmati build, although other grades also are exported.The government increased procurement prices of basmati rice disproportionately to move on 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, gradually increased in area and production after independence, partly at the expense of other minor food grains. Chickpeas, called gram in Pakistan, ar e 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 introduction in 1985 of a new high-yielding variety of seed. During the 1980s, cotton yields moved from 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. but for s ome 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 suitable crops given the countrys soil and climate, but production was still negligible in the early 1990s.