This year’s National Economic Survey notes that Pakistan ranks among the most severely climate-affected countries despite contributing less than one per cent of global emissions. Yet the country bears a disproportionately high burden of global climate change.
The Economic Survey of Pakistan 2025-26 pegs agriculture at 23.4pc of GDP and 33.1pc of total employment, underlining its centrality to livelihoods and food security. Sectoral growth is estimated at 2.89pc. Sindh accounts for 35–40pc of national rice output, 30–35pc of cotton, 25–30pc of sugarcane and 12–15pc of wheat, according to the chief minister’s budget speech.
However, Sindh is prone to extreme weather events. The super floods of 2010, followed by devastating rains in 2011, 2020, 2022 and 2023, repeatedly inflicted heavy losses on standing crops and damaged water infrastructure. As a lower-riparian province, Sindh also faces recurring water stress — at times man-made due to contested interprovincial distribution — which directly undermines kharif output. Soil degradation compounds these pressures.
With this agricultural landscape, development in the research sector is far from satisfactory. Research understandably holds the key to agricultural growth. At a time when climate change-driven weather patterns have become a regular phenomenon that threatens crops, research-oriented measures have become inevitable.
The government has attributed the reduction in the overall development outlay to Sindh’s contribution to national strategic fiscal requirements.
Amidst these challenges facing the sector, the agriculture research and development budget has been slashed by 57pc in FY27 allocations compared with FY26. The government allocated Rs6.30bn for the agriculture sector, inclusive of livestock, which, according to the chief minister, is 1.66pc of the total annual development programme (ADP) of Sindh.
The chief minister has attributed the reduction in the overall development outlay to Sindh’s contribution to national strategic fiscal requirements.
Within the agriculture development portfolio, Rs4.71bn has been allocated in total, of which Rs255m is reserved for research and Rs1.41bn for livestock. The research allocation is to fund five ongoing schemes in FY27. By comparison, the research wing received Rs592m in FY 26, including Rs75m for new schemes, signalling a 57pc contraction year-on-year.
The progress of these five schemes varies significantly. The bio-saline agriculture research initiative shows 76pc completion, while the Horticulture Research Centre upgradation stands at 63.3pc. The wheat varietal development programme using speed breeding is nearly complete at 98.5pc. The Sindh Agriculture Biosaline Rehabilitation and Resilience Initiative (SABRRI) is 50pc complete, while the climate-resilient seed production scheme is 49pc complete.
Separately, the “Integrated Management of Panama Wilt Disease of Banana in Sindh” was approved in March 2024 at Rs200m and revised to Rs149m in FY26. Of this, Rs10m was spent by June 2025, with the remaining Rs139m fully allocated in FY26, indicating completion of funding disbursement.
On the ground, however, farmers continue to demand climate-resilient seed varieties that can replace unreliable supply chains, reduce dependence on imported seeds, and improve per-acre yields. Despite the existence of crop-specific research institutions for wheat, cotton, rice and onion, research outputs remain insufficiently aligned with field realities.
Sindh’s horticulture and cash crops continue to face recurring disease and pest outbreaks. Mango orchards— particularly Sindhri varieties — and banana plantations have been under sustained stress. Onion and cotton have similarly suffered production losses due to unresolved agronomic challenges. Banana cultivation in Thatta was historically wiped out in the late 1980s by bunchy top disease. Today, a new wave of disease threatens orchards in Tando Allahyar, a major production hub.
Banana is a critical crop for Sindh, supplying markets across Pakistan almost year-round. In recent years, Panama Wilt has become particularly destructive in Tando Allahyar and Mirpurkhas districts. Even progressive growers like Imdad Nizamani have been unable to contain it.
He estimates that nearly 250 acres of banana orchards in Tando Allahyar will be lost to the disease despite sustained mitigation efforts. “This land has now been shifted to papaya, chilli, cotton and sugarcane. The remaining 270 acres of banana still have an infestation ratio of 25pc–40pc,” he said.
Recently, Sindh Agriculture University (SAU), Tandojam, and an Australian government-supported international research initiative agreed to collaborate to combat banana diseases, including Panama Wilt and Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV), signalling renewed institutional attention.
Mango production tells a similar story of persistent stress. Orchards have repeatedly suffered from malformation and pest attacks, such as those by hoppers and thrips, resulting in significant yield losses. Contractors report relying on ad hoc methods to contain damage, underscoring the lack of systematic solutions.
Cotton, once a staple crop in Sindh, has experienced a long decline. Production peaked at 4.2m bales in FY10 before entering a downward trajectory. Over the next five years, output fell to 3.5–3.7m bales, and by FY26 it stood at 2.848m bales, according to Pakistan Cotton Ginners’ Association figures.
Vegetables are no exception. Onion, a staple kitchen crop, continues to face persistent production instability. Official agriculture department data shows acreage declining from 61,964 hectares in FY22 to 47,855 hectares in FY23. Production fell from 837,473 tonnes to 646,846 tonnes over the same period.
Sindh remains the country’s largest onion-producing province, ahead of Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, making its losses particularly consequential. Yet growers report little institutional support. A veteran onion farmer, Nadeem Shah from Matiari, says he has scaled down cultivation dramatically — from 150 acres historically to just seven acres in 2025, and none in 2026 — after repeated financial losses from disease.
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, June 22nd, 2026