March 12, 2006	Sunday	Safar 11, 1427

KARACHI, March 11: The share of agriculture in the economy in rupee terms has gone up to over 38 per cent in the last five years but the overall production and per hectare yields of major crops were much less reflecting the price hike in this sector.

Official data shows that the agriculture’s contribution shot up to Rs1,272 billion in 2004-05 from Rs916 billion in 2001-02, an increase of 38.8 per cent. The contribution of major crops in terms of value increased to 48 per cent in the five years.

Wheat production per hectare showed 14 per cent increase from 2,262 kg to 2,577 kg during the last five years.

But the area under wheat cultivation slightly up by 3.3 per cent to 8,330,000 hectares during the period. The production increased by 16 per cent to 21 million tons from 18 million tons during the five years.

A major increase of 19 per cent in the rice cultivation area was noted, while the per hectare yield also increased by 8.6 per cent to 1,994 kg from 1,836 kg during the last five years. The rice sector has set $1 billion export target for current fiscal year.

However, the area under cultivation of sugarcane has dropped by 34,000 hectares during the five years, which resulted in the shortage of sugar and price hike of the commodity. The increased consumption of sugar did not match with the production and yield.

The sugarcane was cultivated on one million hectares in 2001-02 but the area dropped to 0.966 million hectares during 2004-05. The yield per hectare increased by nominal 1.8 per cent which is even much less than the annual population growth of 2.5 per cent in the country. The sugarcane shortage resulted in the devastating price hike of sugar.

Cotton was the only high yielding crop during the five years despite a nominal increase of 2.4 per cent in the cultivation area. The production per hectare increased 31 per cent.

In terms of value, minor crops showed moderate improvement. The value of minor crops increased to Rs138 billion from Rs127 billion five years before. This was an increase of 8.6 per cent.

The contribution of livestock was not impressive despite continued emphasise from the government for its improvement. The value of livestock increased to Rs468 billion from Rs430 billion, an increase of 8.8 per cent.

Last year the government received record production of major crops like wheat and rice while the record production of cotton boosted the agriculture’s contribution to the economy to achieve an economic growth of 8.4 per cent.

The first eight months of the current fiscal year did not show the aggressive increase in the production of wheat, sugarcane and cotton. The wheat prices increased significantly during the year while the sugar prices surged 80 per cent.

The low per hectare yield and almost stagnant areas under cultivation needed to be increased for achieving higher agriculture growth.