Agriculture Situation In Pakistan Economic Condition

Agriculture Situation

The agriculture has been facing acute irrigation water shortages and the water intensive crops sugarcane and maize fell short of the target and depicted negative growth of 18.5 percent and 7.5 percent in 2008-09. However, other two major crops cotton and rice have registered positive growth of 7.3 percent and 13.5 percent, respectively. The combined weight of sugarcane and maize in overall agriculture is 6.2 percent while that of cotton and rice is 13.0 percent. The Rabi season started with estimated water shortages of 31.6 percent, however, widespread rainfall during December 2008 to February 2009 in most parts of the country has positive impact on the outlook for the rabi crop. Wheat with its 12.7 percent weight in overall agriculture is estimated to post 19.0 percent growth over the last year. The area under cultivation of wheat crop has surpassed the target of 8.6 million hectares by 5 percent. The provincial governments and PASSCO has made arrangements for highest ever quantum of procurement at 6.55 million tons of wheat which is far higher than 3.9 million tons procured last year. Fertilizer off-take (both Urea and DAP) decreased by almost 10.5 percent during July-January 2008-09 amid weak demand due to higher prices and vague market signals led to shortages. The disbursement of the agricultural credit is up by 8.2 percent in July-February 2008-09 and stood at Rs.130.3 billion as compared to Rs.120.4 billion disbursed in the comparable period of last year. The crop sector is projected to surpass the growth target. The livestock sector is growing at normal pace and thus the target of 3.2 percent will be achieved. The agriculture sector is likely to achieve its growth target of 3.3 percent for the current year.