Economy of each state relies on three segments that are agriculture, industry and trade. These three are interrelated with one another as the advancement or decline of one area affects the other two. The land of Pakistan is blessed with lot of nutrients, which is perfect for farming the lands for agribusiness purpose. Therefore, it gains much significance in Pakistan. Strength of this segment is complex as it provides food to individuals gives raw material for industry and serves as the base of foreign trade. The statistics can lighten the important of agriculture in Pakistan. Foreign exchange earned from merchandise exports is 45% of total exports of Pakistan. 26% of GDP consist of this and 52% of the citizen is getting its business from it. 67.5% individuals are resident of rural areas of Pakistan and are directly involved into it.
Cotton fabric manufacturing and apparel production are Pakistan’s largest industries, accounting for about 66% of the stock exports. According to FAOSTAT, (the statistical arm of the Food and Agriculture Organization of The United Nations), ranked the following agriculture products of Pakistan, in 2008, Apricot (3rd), Buffalo Milk (2nd), Chickpea (3rd), Cotton, lint (4th), Cotton, Seed (3rd), Dates (5th), Mango (6th), Onion, dry (4th), Oranges (11th), Rice, paddy (11th), Sugarcane (5th), Tangerines, mandarin orange, clementine (9th), Wheat (10th).
Agriculture Sector in Pakistan Problems & Importance
Pakistan’s is provided by two primary natural resources, which is fertilizing land and water. Around 25% of Pakistan’s total land area is cultivated and is facilitated for watering by one of the largest irrigation systems in the world. Many banks are now working for the facilitation and development of agriculture business in Pakistan through provision of financial services and technical expertise.
Every coin has two sides. So there are pros and cons of this business too. There are many problems in this sector. Following are the problems in this sector of Agriculture in Pakistan.
Agriculture Sector in Pakistan Problems
- There is no mechanism that has been adopted to eliminate the soil erosion and even after harvesting, no steps are taken to improve or restore the soil energy. Consequently, the fertility of soil is declining day by day.
- The rate of wastage of water is very high in our country. The ancient method of flood irrigation is still in practice in whole of the country, which causes to waste almost 50 to 60 percent of water.
- Pakistan has low yield per acre that means the average crop in Pakistan is just 1/4th of that of advance states due to old methods of cultivation and harvesting,
- Water logging and salinity is raising its level day by day. No effective measures have been taken to control it. As, storage capacity of the dams is decreasing so the water availability per acre is also decreasing.
- Uneducated farmers are another reason of decline of agriculture business. Focuses more on land and machine, human resource is always ignored. Farmers are not aware of new techniques & technology.
We all are aware of positive and negative aspects of agriculture business. So, we should be focusing on the problems and should encounter them as we should be thankful to God for blessing us with a agriculturally rich land.
“Agriculture business is the backbone of Economy of Pakistan.”
