Agriculture in Pakistan

In align to fulfill full handicraft and raise its entire population higher up the p everywherety line by the year 2006-07, Pakistan needfully to create additional employment for 100 zillion persons and raise the incomes of one thousand millions of chthonic-industrious persons. This report presents a program to achieve these goals utilizing the countrys competitive avail in labour-in gosive unpolished crops and allied industries. Misfortunes can happen to roughly very(prenominal) good overlaps. One of the major(ip) reasons for such mishappenings, is that industries and organizations fail to urinate the importance of a well-planned performance of bracing or actual product development.They do non acknowledge that change is the solo constant amour in this world and as tr depots change it is pregnant to change their products a persistent with it too. The objectives of the program be to double un advanced(a) ware in ten years, achieve complete nutritional self-su fficiency for the country, and gene order millions in exports of sugar, fruits, vege boards, silk and like textiles. The program will gene reckon a minimum process regulate of more than 4% in the sylvan heavens. New changes, are the lifeblood of companies.When firms do non change their level of proceeds to meet the requirements of changing consumer desires, administration regulations completion and a host of other factors market share and exploitation upfulness usually decline. The life of a fresh industry very frequently depends on how it conceives and produceses. INTRODUCTION Agriculture Pakistans principal natural resources are arable push overthrow, irrigate supply, and across-the-board natural gas reserves. round 28% of Pakistans keep big bucks drop off demesne is under cultivation and is watered by one of the erectst irrigation dodges in the world.Agriculture accounts for slightly 24% of gross domestic product and employs just astir(predicate) 44% of the labor force. The approximately strategic crops are cotton fiber, husk, rice, sugarcane, fruits, and veggies, which together account for more than 75% of the value of summation crop output. Despite intensive horticulture practices, Pakistan re mains a internet food importer. Pakistan exports rice, cotton, fish, fruits, and vegetables and imports vegetable vegetable oil, wheat, cotton, pulses, and consumer foods. The scotch importance of agribusiness has declined since independence, when its share of GDP was around 53%.Following the poor harvest of 1993, the disposal introduced agriculture supporter policies, including change magnitude support prices for numerous another(prenominal) untaught commodities and expanded accessibility of unsophisticated credit. From 1993 to 1997, real issue in the rural arena honestd 5. 7% solace has since declined to slight than 4%. Agricultural reforms, including increased wheat and oilseed production, hornswoggle a central role in the presidential terms economic reform package. character reference 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 much essential for achieving self-reliance in major food items. Pakistan with a total disembark area of 79. 61 million hectares is termed as an rude country beca social function agricultural celestial sphere is the single largest sector of the country which not hardly provides food to 140 million people just besides provides employment to somewhatwhat 48 % of the workforce.Beside, it besides provides raw material to the industry, contributes well-nigh 60% to export earnings, and provides the livelihood for 70% rural population. In niggling the agriculture sector can rightly be called the back bone of our economy, as it contributes around Rs800 gazillion, close to one- quadrupleth 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 issue and reducing poverty in Pakistan, has trustworthy less assistance from successive governing bodys in the past 57 years than other issues.According to the frugal Survey of Pakistan, this year the agricultural growth target came down to 2. 6 touch off from 4. 1 percent of the last year i. e. 2004-05. The Survey similarly attributed the slippage in agriculture to the weak performance of both the major and minor 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 volume of the farming community as they are expressing their dissatisfaction over the ince ntives 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 decrement in cotton and sugarcane production.The major crops as wheat, cotton, rice, sugarcane and lemon yellow account for 41% of value added and minor crops 10% in overall agriculture. Livestock has emerged as an important sub sector of agriculture. It accounts for 37. 5% of agriculture value added and just virtually 9. 4% of the GDP. Similarly, fisheries play an important role in home( a) income by export earnings. Agricultural Policy The agricultural sector is highly politicized because the majority of landowners contract had considerable political influence. This has resulted in agricultural policy being steered towards supporting the production of majorcash crops such as sugarcane, and exempting al closely all agricultural income from taxes. However, following recent discussions with the IMF and founding Bank on r eveue collection in general, the present government is in the process of re-structuring the arranging to try and increase agricultural taxation. In addition, successive governments have increase considerable support to the sector by providing concessionary financing to farmers for the bargain for of agricultural equipment (mainly tractors) and for building irrigation and drainpipe organisations.Three year Strategy The Ministry of Agriculture is preparing a new trio-year strategy. This will focus on the enhanced productivity of export oriented crops and assure better marketing of exportable crops to get maximal prices of the produce. The new strategy will envisages to cleanse 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 bear on agricultural growth advance input supplies supported by get 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 gestate of land.Improving the productivity of miniature farmers while encouraging the large farmers for utilization of advanced technology. GROWTH IN AGRICULTURE Agriculture is a prime sector of natio nal 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 compass point of commonalty 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 ecstasy. The growth however retarded in s change surfaceties to 2. 4%. The spacious nationalization policy of the unavowed enterprises had an overall negative meet 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 everyday sector investments in agriculture sector.The important institutions accredited during this decade are Tarbela Dam, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Training and Visit p rogramme of Agricultural Extension, Seed Certification and Registration Departments/Seed Corporations, On Farm Water Management and Barani Area Development Programs. In addition like export Corporation and Rice Export Corporation were established during the decade to provide an export link to indigenous production.Agriculture in Pakistan solid ground 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 earlier 1960s however, the country is still far from realizing the large potential yield that the well-irrigated and fertile soil from the Indus irrigation gove rnance 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 nigh 803,940 square kilometers. About 48 million hectares, or 60 percent, is often classified as unusable for forestry or agriculture consists mostly of deserts, pot slopes, and urban settlements.Some authorities, however, include part of this area as agricultural land on the basis that it would support some livestock activity even though it is poor rangeland. Thus, estimates of grazing land vary widely amidst 10 percent and 70 percent of the total area. A vast interpretation, for example, categorizes almost all of arid Baluchistan as rangeland for foraging livestock. Government officials listed only 3 million hectares, more often than not in the north, as forested in FY 1992. About 21. 9 million hectares were civilized in FY 1992.Around 70 percent of the cropped area was in Punjab, foll owed 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 gracious 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 mazed to urbanization and waterlogging, but losses are more than compensated for by additions of new land.In the aboriginal 1990s, more irrigation projects were ask to increase the area of cultivated land. The scant rainfall 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 additional 2 million hectares of land are under no irrigated cropping, such as plantings on floodplains as the water recedes.No irrigated farming generally practices low yields, and although the technology exists to boost production substantially, it is expensive to use and not always readily available. Irrigation In the first 1990s, irrigation from the Indus River and its tributaries constituted the worlds largest beside irrigation system, capable of watering over 16 million hectares. The system includes three major shop reservoirs and numerous barrages, headworks, supplys, and distribution channels. The total length of the canal system exceeds 58,000kilometers there are an additional 1.6 million kilometers of farm and sketch 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. by and by nine years of negotiations and technical studies, the issue was solved by the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. After a ten-year transitional period, the conformity awarded India use of the waters of the main eastern trib utaries 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 twist 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 spacious link canals were built to transfer water from western rivers to eastern Punjab to flip-flop 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 to a fault contributes to flood control, to regulation of flows for some of the link canals, and to the countrys zilch supply. At the same time, additional construction was undertaken on barrages and canals. A stake phase of irrigation expansion began in 1968, when a US$1. 2 billion fund, besides 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, peculiarly 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 low 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 sophisticated 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 hurrying 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 represents a significant engineer achievement and provides water to the fields that account for 90 percent of agricultural p roduction.Nonetheless, serious problems in the design of the irrigation system prevent achieving the highest potential agricultural output. Water management is found largely on objectives and operational procedures date 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 purposeless by farmers.Good water management is not practiced by government officials, who often assume that investments in physical aspects of the system will mechanically yield higher crop production. Government management of the system does not extend beyond the main distribution channels. After passing 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 position 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 diminutive understanding of the most productive applications of water during crop-growing cycles because of the lack of research and accompaniment services. As a result, improvements in the irrigation sy stem have not embossed 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. muck 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 sixteen 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 area in Punjab.In some locations, the water table is much closer to the surface. Cropping is seriously modify over a wide area by poor d rainagewaterloggingand by accumulated salts in the soil. Although some drainage was installed before World War II, little attention was paying(a) 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, using groundwater for irrigation.By the early 1980s, some thirty such projects had been started that when completed would irrigate some 6. 3 million hectares. By 1993 the government had installed around 15,000 tube wells. private 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 tail fin times as much water as public wells. Officials were aware of the need for additional spending to prevent gain ground declination of the existing situation.Emphasis in the 1980s and early 1990 s was on renewal 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 bread and butter 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 funds are needed to realize the full potential of the irrigation system and hold 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 mo of very large estates. Distribution of landownership was sternly skewed. 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 la ndlords, 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 faithful ownership of farmland and security of tenancy. In the early 1950s, provincial governments seek to eliminate some of the absentee landlords or rent collectors, but they had little success in the face of strong opposition. Security of tenancy was also leg islated 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 tenure. A ceiling of about 200 hectares of irrigated land and four hundred 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 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 mad e no serious attempt to split up large estates or to lessen the power or privileges of the set down 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 twenty-five hectares was pronounced as a desirable economic holding. In action 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. Offici al 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 soldiery 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 number 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 represent 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 in 1980although the average size of the biggest farms was smaller in 1980. The number of farms between two and ten hectares increas ed 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 retain 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 holdings remain a substantial and widespread problem. Studies indicate that larger farms are usually less productive per hectare or u nit of water than smaller 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 bread called chapatti. In FY 1992, wheat was put on 7. 8 million hectares, and production amounted to 14. 7 million tons. issue 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 hav e 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 var., although other grades also are exported.The government increased procurement prices of basmati rice disproportionately to further 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, in stages increased in area and production after independence, partly at the expense 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 1 990s, 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. pull up 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 helianthus seeds appear to be suitable crops given the countrys soil and climate, but production was still negligible in the early 1990s.