Agriculture sector sees 6.25pc growth in FY 2023-24

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

The Economic Survey of Pakistan read that the agriculture sector in Pakistan witnessed robust growth in FY2024, with an overall increase of 6.25 percent. The rise in production of important crops (16.82%) is attributed to the production of cotton (108.2%, 10.22 million bales compared to 4.91 million bales), rice (34.8%, 9.87 million tonnes compared to 7.32 million tonnes), and wheat (11.6%, 31.44 million tonnes from 28.16 million tonnes).

However, sugarcane and maize declined by 0.4 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively, which can be partially attributed to the crop switching.

As such, the production of both crops is largely comparable, with sugarcane standing at 87.64 million tonnes against 87.98 million tonnes and maize at 9.85 million tonnes compared to 10.99 million tonnes.

Other crops have also shown a growth of 0.90 percent as compared to the contraction of 0.92 percent last year because of growth in fruits (8.40%), vegetables (5.77%) and pulses (1.45%).

Cotton ginning, having a share of 1.34 percent in the agriculture sector and 0.32 percent in GDP, grew by 47.23 percent on the back of high growth in cotton production.

livestock

Meanwhile, the livestock which accounts for 60.84 percent of the agricultural sector and 14.63 percent of GDP, grew by 3.89 percent in 2023-24, up from 3.70 percent last year, it added.

The survey read that thea forestry sector, contributing 2.33 percent to agricultural value addition and 0.56 percent to GDP, grew by 3.05 percent, compared to a significant 16.63 percent growth last year.

The fishing 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 the previous year, it added.

Water availability, during Kharif 2023, increased to 61.9 Million Acre Feet (MAF) from 43.3 MAF in Kharif 2022, meeting the requirements for Kharif crops. For Rabi 2023-24, water availability was recorded at 30.6 MAF, showing an increase of 4.1 percent over Rabi 2022-23.

Overall domestic production of fertilizers during FY 2024 (July-March) increased by 17.3 percent to 3.253 million tonnes compared to 2.773 million tonnes in the same period of FY 2023. Fertilizer imports also increased by 23.7 percent, reaching 524 thousand tonnes.

Consequently, the availability of fertilizer increased by 18.1percent to 3.776 million tonnes. Total off take of fertilizer nutrients also saw an 18.7 percent increase, reaching 3.957 million tonnes. This high offtake is attributed to the extraordinarily low offtake during the previous year due to floods.