Agricultural Sector of Pakistan

BBA- V (Hons)

1
 Role of Agricultural Sector in
Economic Development
 contributing 21% towards GDP
 providing food to about 163.76 million people
 earning about 60% of the country's total export
earnings
 providing employment to 44% of the total work
force.
 providing the main source of livelihood for the rural
population of Pakistan which is 64%
 providing raw materials for many industries and a
market for many locally produced industrial products
 Expansion in domestic demand
 Impact on rural welfare
 Provision of Capital

2
 Subsectors of Agriculture
 Crops
 20.9% to GDP
 Food Crops : Wheat (3% of GDP), Rice (5th largest exporting country)
 Cash Crops (Cotton (most important in terms of area and value
addition)

 Livestock
 5th largest milk producer in the world
 Buffaloes, cattle, goats, poultry, camels, donkeys, horses and mules
 The tropical climate, primitive breeding methods, lack of proper care,
lack of medical facilities and research centers, poor marketing facilities
and insufficient breeding farms are some of the problems.
 Important in terms of Motor Power, Nutritional Food, Raw material for
domestic industry, Contribution in exports, Contribution to GDP

 Fisheries
 0.3% to the total GDP
 400 thousand fishermen with families are dependent on fisheries
 Main economic activity of the coastal belt of Sindh and Balochistan

3
 Issues in Agricultural Pricing
 Support prices for key agricultural commodities and subsidies for
major inputs
 Complete liberalization of prices and reliance upon the market
mechanism to achieve efficiency and competitiveness
 Output pricing includes fixation of support or procurement prices
of various agricultural crops
 Input pricing refers to subsidies on seeds, fertilizers, pesticides,
machinery, water, electricity, fuels, and farm credit.
 A host of policy measures:
 First, market and storage development is critical. The
government should provide incentives to the private sector for
storage development which is critical to price stability.
Adequate support to develop private marketing channels for
greater competition should be provided.
 Second, small farmers should be provided greater access to
credit to improve their productivity.
 Third, periodic government intervention to hedge against
extreme price volatility should continue.
 Fourth, the prevalent system of general subsidies, which leads
to leakage of benefits to the non-deserving, should be replaced
by targeted subsidies to poor and indigent consumers.
 Finally, effective policies for income redistribution should be
4 pursued to ensuring that the long-term benefits of structural
adjustment reach the lower segments of society
 Biotechnology- Genetic
Engineering
 Improves the efficiency of crop
 Increases food production
 Reduces Poverty

Bioengineering in Pakistan
 Use of modern biotechnology started in Pakistan since 1985.
 Biotechnology research has been carried out at many of the
research centers in Pak
 There are now more than 300 scientists working in 29 research
centers conducting biotechnology research
 About US $17 million has been invested by the government in
biotechnology r&d during the last 3-4 years.
 It shows a huge potential in helping mankind solve problems that
are difficult to deal with using traditional methods.
 Pakistan has made considerable progress and has developed
several GM crops.
 Farmers of Pakistan will reap the benefits of legally released and
indigenously developed biotech crops in the next 1-2 years.

5
 Crops’ yield remains below global standards 2008

 Productivity of all crops in Pakistan has remained below global standard

 The unaware farmers continue increasing the fertilizer use without paying
attention to other aspects like the quality of soil and seeds
 Agriculture experts point out that blindly adding fertilizers does not ensure
higher yield. They said the quality of soil determines the type and quantity of
fertilizer to be added in the soil. They said the quality of seed and the removal of
weeds is also crucial for obtaining maximum yield. They said provincial
Agriculture Extension Departments have failed to create the awareness about
the judicial use of inputs and required treatment of soil for ensuring higher
yields.
 The agricultural experts have appealed the government to pay attention to all
aspects that improve productivity in agriculture instead of leaving it to the poor
farmers that do not have access to modern technology and inputs.

6
 For achieving food security: experts reject corporate farming
The panel suggested the government and authorities concerned to initiate
following steps for the development of local agriculture and safeguarding the
women folk's participation in the process.
i) Pakistan do not have good economist, who can tackle the challenges of
Globalisation and chalk out policies, which could save the poor and vulnerable
section of society from the fall out of negotiation on WTO/Globalisation. So it
was necessary that we connect ourselves with other developing countries who
were active in this field ie Brazil, India, China etc and follow their leads in
International Negotiation on different WTO agreements ie Agreement on
Agricultural (AOA) TRIP, TRIM etc. Getting organised was the need of the hour.
Thus we could play active roll in G-20 and G-30.
ii) The second step concerns government policies. Our policies should be people
friendly and while developing official policy all stakeholders be taken on board.
The government should not forego its responsibilities and should assert itself in
safeguarding the rights of the people especially in social sectors ie
employment, health, education etc.
iii) "People should be given ownership of assets and not be deprived of their
existing assets vis-à-vis Corporate Farming. Small farmers must be created and
strengthened to ensure poverty alleviation and food security.

7
 ZTBL to distribute Rs 80 billion loans among farmers
 Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) will distribute loans of Rs 80
billion among farmers during the current financial year, which is Rs
10 billion more than the amount disbursed last year.
 ZTBL would distribute loans of Rs 10 billion to increase milk
production in the country. The bank had launched the "White
Revolution Scheme" with the collaboration of Nestle Pakistan and
Pakistan Dairy Development Company (PDDC).
 Nestle Pakistan would assist the farmers to buy animals and if dairy
farmers would sell the milk to Nestle Pakistan, the company would
also pay the mark-up to the bank. While PDDC would set up model
dairy farms under White Revolution Scheme.
 ZTBL would distribute seed and fertilisers on the doorsteps of
farmers and pilot project of this scheme had been started in
different districts of Sindh and Punjab.