Pakistan's Agriculture Importance (Overview)

Pakistan is basically an agricultural country and currently agriculture contributes about 25 percent of the GDP and together with agro-based products fetches 75 percent of the national merchandise export earnings of over Rs.90 billion. Over 50 percent of the labor is absorbed by the agriculture sector. By contrast, industry contributes 18 percent of the national income and 15 percent of the total employment. Agriculture sector comprises crops, livestock’s, forestry and fisheries sub-sectors. Of these, crop sector accounts for 69 percent of agriculture’s GDP, while livestock accounts for 30 percent. Forestry and fisheries make up less than 2 percent of the total. Agriculture is, therefore, the leading sector and backbone of our economy. Unfortunately due to corruption and mismanagement of political, bureaucratic, economic and social system at the national level, the agriculture production system is also collapsing.