KARACHI: Farm ownership in Pakistan is deeply unequal, according to the 7th Agricultural Census of Pakistan 2024. While a small elite controls most of the land in Sindh and Balochistan, experts say the more equitable distribution in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is due to the fragmentation of landholdings in those provinces.
The data, released on Wednesday by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), reveals that Sindh shows a high degree of land concentration. Just 0.3 per cent of farms (5,295 farms) control a significant 15 per cent of the province’s farm area. The average size of these large farms is a staggering 251 acres, above the national average of 215 acres.
Similar to Sindh, a tiny minority of 0.5 per cent of farms (3,182 farms) control 7.0 per cent of Balochistan’s total farm area. The average size of these farms is 230 acres.
According to Executive Director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, the reason for greater landholding in Balochistan is low land productivity. Scarce water resources, vast stretches of unproductive terrain and a sparse population mean that farms remain large, as there is neither the pressure nor the economic incentive to subdivide them. The province is also the least urbanised in Pakistan, further limiting the conversion of agricultural land to residential or commercial use.
Approximately 17,000 farm owners with over 100 acres each control 6.0 per cent of the country’s total land holdings (3.65 million acres). Meanwhile, 20 per cent of farm holdings are much smaller, falling between 7.5 and 12.5 acres. The pattern in Punjab is markedly different. While land inequality exists, it is less pronounced in terms of area. A minuscule 0.1 per cent of farms (7,742 farms) control 5.0 per cent of the total farm area. The average size of these farms, at 190 acres.
Bilal Akbar, a landholder in Punjab, explained that several factors have contributed to the fragmentation of large land holdings in Punjab, particularly when compared to other regions like Balochistan. These can be broken down into three main points: inheritance; population growth and urbanisation; and a shift in societal values.
“Central Punjab, in particular, has seen rapid population growth and urbanisation. As the population grows, agricultural land gets converted into commercial and residential properties. This is especially true in areas like Sargodha and Faisalabad, where the demand for land for housing societies and other developments is high,” Akbar added
Suleri agreed: “In Punjab, a large population, higher urbanisation, and extensive peri-urban expansion have led to a steady fragmentation of farms. Land that was already modest in size has been repeatedly subdivided through inheritance, making commercial-scale farming less viable -- except in South Punjab, where irrigated land and larger holdings still make agriculture profitable.” On inheritance, Akbar shared that while over generations, the traditional practice of dividing land among children has significantly reduced the size of land holdings, leaving many families with only small plots, there is another aspect to it, which makes Punjab’s land ownership structure different from Sindh and Balochistan.
Per Akbar, in Balochistan and Sindh, daughters are often given a smaller share of inheritance. In contrast, Punjab has seen some improvements; inheritance laws are now being implemented, which require that daughters receive their rightful share. Naturally, if a daughter marries outside the family and inherits land, that land passes out of the family’s control. That landholdings are decreasing in Punjab is partly because inheritance laws are being enforced more strictly. Also, due to urbanisation and commercialisation, people’s mindsets have shifted; there are now more marriages taking place outside of traditional family structures. As a result, land is being distributed more widely, and individual landholdings are shrinking.
Financial expert Syed Asad Ali Shah commented on the virtually non-productive nature of landholdings in Sindh and Balochistan. He pointed to two major things: “One, groundwater in Punjab helps with irrigation, allowing farmers or landholders to have some produce on their land, even when the overall area is relatively small.”
“For the other two provinces, that is not the case. They do not have favourable conditions for plant growth,” he said. Shah was also of the view that some landholdings are also used as a measure to park their money and create individual wealth instead of creating economic output from it. “Many influential people have also held on to the land for a larger asset base.”
In contrast, a major cultural shift in Punjab has also contributed to the sale of land, shared Akbar. Many people in central Punjab, especially in regions like Sargodha, Mandi Bahauddin and Gujrat, have begun to view migrating abroad for work as a more desirable option than being a landowner. This mindset has led many families to sell their land to fund their move or simply because they no longer need it. These large-scale land sales often benefit commercial developers, further accelerating the conversion of agricultural land into urban areas.
Shah echoed similar sentiments and said that mainly agriculturists sell their lands to set up industries or enter the business ecosystem.
According to PBS data, despite an expansion of the total cultivated area to 52.8 million acres, the number of farms has grown from 8.26 million in 2010 to 11.7 million. Consequently, the average farm size has decreased from 6.4 acres to 5.1 acres due to population growth.
For Shah, aggressive taxation measures and declining crop yield have also pushed most people away from the sector where agriculture is not so profitable for most people. “Investors will put in money on technology and machinery required for cultivation only if the area of cultivation is large and yields are high. There is no incentive for investors if farming is done in small areas and the per-unit cost is high.”
This is reflected in PBS data, in Balochistan, the cultivated area as a percentage of farm area is only 51. Nearly half the land on these vast estates is not cultivated. In Sindh, the cultivation rate of 65 per cent is better than Balochistan’s but significantly lower than Punjab’s where the rate is 91 per cent.
On Sindh’s lack of agricultural productive, Suleri maintained that the province has a deeply entrenched feudal structure, with a clear hierarchy of landlords, cultivators and tenants. Sindh also records the highest rate of tenancy farming in the country. Many influential political families own vast estates in interior Sindh, and entire constituencies often reside and work on their land. This socio-political setup has helped the same political elites retain both their land and electoral dominance over successive elections. Outside major urban centres such as Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur, urbanisation has been slow, further entrenching the prevalence of large holdings.
KP has the lowest concentration of land among the major provinces. An almost negligible number of farms (648 in total) are 100 acres or above, controlling just 1.0 per cent of the total farm area. The average size of these farms is 168 acres. Suleri said that the area “reflects its geography. In the mountainous north, small terraced plots dominate, while in the south, flatter terrain allows for somewhat larger farms.”
As experts mostly agreed on the reasons for different patterns of landholding across the country, Akbar added the final thought: while those who returned to Pakistan with capital and tried to invest their foreign income, agricultural land has become so expensive that it is now difficult to purchase significant amounts. In Balochistan and Sindh, this kind of urbanisation has not taken place, and population growth hasn’t followed the same pattern either. That said, landholdings are now also shrinking in these provinces, albeit at a slower pace. Punjab’s rapid population growth, quick urbanization, and cultural shift towards emigration have made the fragmentation of land holdings much more pronounced.