Agriculture is one of the biggest sectors of Pakistan economy. It contributes around a quarter to national GDP of Pakistan and employs around half of country’s workforce.Around 70% of country’s foreign exchange earnings depend directly or indirectly on agriculture.
Pakistan’s agriculture sector is not only big but is fairly diversified too. Varied climatic zones which range from sub-zero mountainous north to hot and dry plains of Punjab and Sindh in central part of the country and long coastal belt of Sindh and Balochistan in South enables country’s agriculture to produce wide range of agricultural products. Most of Pakistan’s land mass is arable which is brought under cultivation to produce at-least two crops a year.Pakistan has sufficient water resources which are efficiently used through a well-developed irrigation system. Pakistan being one of world’s most populous countries has a large workforce which is available at affordable cost to work on farms.
Pakistan is one of world’s largest producers of rice. Other large crops include wheat, cotton, sugarcane, maize and pulses. Mango, kinnow (mandarin), dates, apples, grapes, peaches, apricot, melons, potato, onion and a wide range of fresh Asian vegetables constitute the horticulture subsector. Pakistan also has fairly large livestock and dairy sector. Country’s agro-climatic conditions support the production of various flowers and herbs too but they constitute a relatively small segment of the agriculture sector.
Pakistan’s close proximity to Middle East one of world’s most food deficient regions gives Pakistan a unique advantage over other food producing countries.
Leave a Reply