Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 12.3
Farm size
distributions in Pakistan
Farm number
Farm area
Farm size (ha)
Million
%
Million
%
<
0.5
0.68
13
0.19
1
<
1
2
1.04
20
1.45
8
2
<
10
2.32
46
9.41
49
<
10.0
20
0.24
5
3.03
16
20.0
<
60
0.09
2
2.61
14
60 0.02 - 1.94 10
Source: Agricultural Statistics of Pakistan 1998-1999
>
Table 12.4
Distribution of farms and farm area by tenure
Farm number (%)
Farm area (%)
Farm size (ha)
Owner
Owner-tenant
Tenant
Owner
Owner-tenant
Tenant
<
0.5
90
1:0
9:0
88
2
10
<
7:5
17:5
7
18
2.0
75
75
2.0
<
10
59
18
23
59
18:5
22:6
10.0
<
20
63
24
13
62
25
13
20.0
<
60
72
21
7
72
21
7
>
60
79
16
4
81
16
3
Source: Pakistan Census of Agriculture (1990)
and their area are owner-operated in Sindh and Balochistan. The land ownership
data, which are based on land records, are not readily available for recent years.
However, land concentration was quite high in Sindh and quite low in NWFP. In
fact, in Punjab and NWFP, very high percentage of farm area was in the hands of
owners of 10 ha or less.
1.6
Agriculture Milieu
Agriculture has been and continues to be the principal driving force of the national
economy, accounting for 26 % of GDP and, together with agro-based industries,
contributing 80 % of export earnings. Over half of the labor force is absorbed
by the sector, which has been performing below potential as a result of various
technical, social and structural constraints. The sector as a whole is passing through
a transitional phase from subsistence to increasingly commercial production. There
is, however, a gap between the well-resourced commercial sector with large holdings
and access to reliable irrigation and the traditional sector, which includes farmers
with small subsistence holdings whether irrigated, or Barani, tenants and physically
marginal farms outside the Indus basin.
Rural sector in Pakistan is going through a structural change. Although there
has been a constant increase in the number of non-farm families in relation to the
number of farm households, a substantial increase in the share of small farms in
the total farm households and a decline in the number of tenant-operated farms
is significantly visible. This change is resulting from “push” factors, such as farm
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