Agri sector needs more attention in budget

ISLAMABAD: A sector that provides livelihood for almost two out of every five Pakistanis, if grows by only 3.81 percent, then it should be considered alarming bells for the government and it should give more preference to the sector in the upcoming federal budget.

However, this growth in 2017/18 was more than the target of 3.5pc and last year growth of 2.07pc, however still the sector has vast capacity need the government’s full attention as it contributes 18.9pc to the country’s GDP, revealed the Pakistan’s Economic Survey 2017/18 launched here jointly by Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Planning and Development and Dr Miftah Ismail, Federal Adviser on Finance and Revenue and Economics here on Thursday.

They termed the economy survey as a ‘score card’ of the PML-N government for the last five years.

This low growth in agriculture sector indicates that the poverty situation in the country could not be mitigated with this low growth, as mostly rural population is engaged with the sector.

Agriculture contributing 18.9 percent to country’s GDP and also has forward linkage. If it gives a low figure, it will also harm demand for industrial goods and other services and supplying raw material to agro-based industry notably cotton textile industry which is the largest subsector of manufacturing sector.

The cotton crop has share of 1.0 percent in GDP and contributes 5.5 percent in agriculture value addition. During 2017/18, cotton production was recorded at 11.935 million bales registering 11.8 percent increase over the production of 10.67 million bales during 2016-17.

Wheat is the leading food grain of Pakistan occupying the largest area under single crop. Wheat accounts for 9.1 percent of the value added in agriculture and 1.7 percent of GDP in Pakistan. Wheat production during July-Feb (2017/18) stood at 25.49 million tons compared to 26.67 million tons in 2016/17, depicting 4.4pc decline.

Rice is an important food and cash crop and it accounts for 3.1 percent in the value added in agriculture and 0.6 percent of GDP. During 2017-18, rice production remained historically high 6.849 million.

During 2017-18, the production of sugarcane was at record high at 81.1 million tons against 75.48 million tons last year, showing increase of 7.4pc. Sugarcane crop accounts for 3.6 percent in agriculture’s value addition and 0.7 percent in overall GDP.

Maize contributes 2.4 percent to the value added in agriculture and 0.5 percent to GDP. During 2017-18, its production stood at 5.7 million tons compared to the last year production of 6.134 million tons showing a decline of 7pc.

Livestock contributed approximately 58.92 percent to the agriculture sector and 11.11pc in GDP witnessed 3.76 percent growth compared to 2.99 percent during last year.