LAHORE:
The agriculture sector of Pakistan has recorded a robust growth of 4.40% in fiscal 12 months 2021-22, thereby surpassing the goal of three.5% and beating the growth of three.4% within the earlier 12 months, stated the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2021-22.
Except for the staple crop, ie wheat, all different crops have proven a powerful growth, nonetheless scarcity of some key crops depicts that there nonetheless exist hurdles in the way in which of farmers in gaining access to the markets. Apart from this, there’s an general lack of administration by the provincial and federal governments to scale back the function of intermediary and avert worth hikes.
The survey stated that the growth was primarily pushed by excessive yields, engaging output costs, supportive authorities insurance policies, higher availability of licensed seeds, pesticides and agricultural credit score.
The crops sector outperformed and posted a growth of 6.58% throughout FY22 in opposition to 5.96% within the earlier 12 months.
At the sub-sector degree, vital crops, different crops and cotton ginning depicted a major growth of seven.24%, 5.44% and 9.1% respectively, in opposition to final 12 months’s growth of 5.83%, 8.27% and -13.08%. The growth in manufacturing of vital crops particularly cotton, rice, sugarcane and maize is estimated at 17.9%, 10.7%, 9.4% and 19% respectively.
The cotton crop has elevated from 7.1 million bales final 12 months to eight.3 million bales throughout 2021-22 whereas rice manufacturing elevated from 8.4 million tonnes to 9.3 million tonnes.
Sugarcane manufacturing elevated from 81 million tonnes to 88.7 million tonnes whereas maize manufacturing rose from 8.9 million tonnes to 10.6 million tonnes.
However, wheat manufacturing decreased from 27.5 million tonnes to 26.4 million tonnes.
Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir, whereas presenting the survey, stated that the federal government was trying to import 3 million tonnes of wheat primarily from Russia to avert any disaster in future.
On the opposite hand, different crops, having a share of 13.86% in agricultural worth addition and three.14% within the gross home product (GDP), grew 5.44% on the again of improve in manufacturing of pulses (29.82%), oilseeds (24.75%), greens (11.52%), fruits (1.53%) and fodder (0.36%).
Livestock, having a share of 61.89% in agriculture and 14.04% in GDP, recorded a growth of three.26% in 2021-22 in comparison with 2.38% throughout the identical interval of final 12 months, the survey added.
The fishing sector, having a share of 1.39% in agricultural worth addition and 0.32% in GDP, grew 0.35% in comparison with growth of 0.73% in the identical interval of final 12 months.
The forestry sector, having a share of two.14% in agricultural worth addition and 0.49% in GDP, posted a optimistic growth of 6.13% in opposition to unfavorable growth of 0.45% final 12 months.
The survey stated that water availability throughout Kharif 2021 was recorded at 65.1 million acre toes (MAF) in comparison with 65.1 MAF of Kharif 2020. Rabi season 2021-22 acquired 27.4 MAF, a lower of 12% over Rabi 2020-21.
The home manufacturing of fertilisers throughout FY22 (July-March) elevated 1.9% over the identical interval of final 12 months. The improve in home manufacturing of fertiliser is especially as a result of working of two LNG-based vegetation, Fatima Fertiliser and Agritech Limited, from September 2021 to March 2022.
Although the import of fertiliser decreased by 6.2%, the entire availability of fertiliser barely elevated by 0.5%. There was a lower within the whole offtake of fertiliser vitamins by 3.6%.
During July-March FY22, whole tractor manufacturing reached 41,871 in comparison with 36,900 final 12 months, 13.5% greater than the identical interval of final 12 months.
During FY22 (July-March), banks disbursed Rs958.3 billion in agricultural credit score, which was 56.4% of the annual goal and 0.5% greater than the disbursement of Rs953.7 billion throughout the identical interval of final 12 months. Further, the excellent portfolio of agricultural loans has elevated by Rs30.9 billion ie, from Rs601.8 billion to Rs632.7 billion at finish of March 2022 as in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months.
In phrases of outreach, the variety of excellent debtors reached 3.2 million in March 2022. During FY2022 (July-March), whole fish manufacturing was recorded at 696.0 thousand MT (marine: 468 thousand MT and inland: 228 thousand MT) witnessing a rise of 0.8% over the identical interval of final 12 months’s fish manufacturing of 690.6 thousand MT (marine: 465.2 thousand MT and inland: 225.4 thousand MT).
Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2022.
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