Pakistan’s Agriculture Sector Grew by Over 6% in FY24

The agriculture sector in Pakistan witnessed robust growth in FY2024, with an overall increase of 6.25 percent, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2023-24. The rise in production of important crops (16.82 percent) is attributed to the production of cotton (108.2 percent, 10.22 million bales compared to 4.91 million bales), rice (34.8 percent, 9.87 million tonnes compared to 7.32 million tonnes), and wheat (11.6 percent, 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 percent), vegetables (5.77 percent) and pulses (1.45 percent). 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, with a significant share of 60.84 percent in agriculture and 14.63 percent in GDP, grew by 3.89 percent compared to 3.70 percent last year. Forestry, having a share of 2.33 percent in agriculture, grew by 3.05 percent compared to 16.63 percent last year. Fishing, with a sectoral share of 1.30 percent has shown a growth of 0.81 percent against 0.60 percent during last year.