Pakistan’s agriculture sector witnesses 6.25pc growth in FY 2023-24

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s agriculture sector witnessed a growth of 6.25 percent as against 2.27 percent during the same period last year.

As per the details, the Economic Survey of Pakistan states that the agriculture sector in Pakistan has witnessed strong growth with an overall growth of 6.25 percent in FY 2024. The increase in major crop production (16.82%) was attributed to cotton production (108.2%, 10.22 million bales against 4.91 million bales), rice (34.8%, 9.87 million tons against 7.32 million tons), and wheat production. Is. 11.6%, from 28.16 million tonnes to 31.44 million tonnes).

However, sugarcane and maize declined by 0.4 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively, partly attributable to crop rotation.

Thus, production of the two crops is largely comparable, with sugarcane production at 87.64 million tonnes against 87.98 million tonnes and maize at 9.85 million tonnes against 10.99 million tonnes.

Other crops also grew by 0.90% against a contraction of 0.92% last year due to growth in fruits (8.40%), vegetables (5.77%) and pulses (1.45%).

Cotton ginning, which contributes 1.34 percent to the agricultural sector and 0.32 percent to the GDP, grew by 47.23 percent due to higher growth in cotton production.

Livestock growth 2024

Meanwhile, livestock, which accounts for 60.84 per cent of the agriculture sector and 14.63 per cent of GDP, grew by 3.89 per cent in 2023-24, as against 3.70 per cent last year.

Thia forestry sector, which contributes 2.33 percent to agricultural value addition and 0.56 percent to GDP, grew by 3.05 percent compared to a remarkable growth of 16.63 percent last year, the survey said.

The fisheries sector, which represents 1.30 percent of agricultural value addition and 0.31 percent of GDP, grew by 0.81 percent, up from 0.35 percent in the previous year.

Water availability during Kharif 2023 increased to 61.9 million acre feet (MAF) from 43.3 MAF in Kharif 2022, meeting the requirements of Kharif crops. Water availability for Rabi 2023-24 was recorded at 30.6 MAF, which is 4.1% higher than Rabi 2022-23.

Total domestic production of fertilizers during FY 2024 (July-March) increased by 17.3% to 3.253 million tonnes as against 2.773 million tonnes in the same period of FY 2023. Fertilizer imports also increased by 23.7% to 524 thousand tons.

As a result, fertilizer availability increased by 18.1 percent to 3.776 million tons. The overall consumption of fertilizer nutrients also saw an increase of 18.7%, reaching 3.957 million tonnes. This high volume accounts for the unusually low volatility during the past year due to flooding.