The agriculture sector in the country witnessed 6.25 percent growth during fiscal year 2023-24 compared to 2.27 percent of the corresponding period of the last year. According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2023-24 launched here Tuesday, the agriculture sector growth was driven by healthy growth in important crops, specifically, there was a significant growth of 16.82 percent in the production of major crops. Wheat production has witnessed a record growth of 11.6 percent, reaching 31.4 million tonnes compared to 28.2 million tonnes last year, whereas cotton production, which was severely damaged by floods and rains last year, recorded 10.2 million bales compared to 4.9 million bales last year, growing by 108.2 percent, it added. Rice production also saw a significant increase, reaching 9.9 million tonnes compared to 7.3 million tonnes last year, representing a growth of 34.8 percent, it added. In contrast, sugarcane and maize production declined by 0.4 percent and 10.4 percent, respectively, with sugarcane production at 87.6 million tonnes compared to last year’s 88.0 million tonnes and maize production at 9.8 million tonnes compared to 11.0 million tonnes last year, it revealed. The negative growth in sugarcane and maize has been offset by the substantial growth in wheat, cotton and rice Other crops have also shown growth, increasing by 0.90 percent compared to a decline of -0.92 percent last year. This growth is attributed to an increase in the production of fruits (8.40 percent), vegetables (5.77 percent), and pulses (1.45 percent). Additionally, cotton ginning, which has a share of 0.32 percent in GDP and 1.34 percent in agricultural GDP, grew by 47.23 percent due to the significant increase in cotton production. Meanwhile, the livestock, which accounts for 60.84 percent of the agricultural sector and 14.63 percent of GDP, grew by 3.89 percent in 2023-24, up from 3.70 percent last year, it added. The Economic Survey of Pakistan revealed that the forestry sector, contributing 2.33 percent to agricultural value addition and 0.56 percent to GDP, grew by 3.05 percent, compared to a significant 16.63 percent growth last year. The fishing sector, which represents 1.30 percent of agricultural value addition and 0.31 percent of GDP, grew by 0.81 percent, up from 0.35 percent the previous year, it added. Water availability, during Kharif 2023, increased to 61.9 Million Acre Feet (MAF) from 43.3 MAF in Kharif 2022, meeting the requirements for Kharif crops. For Rabi 2023-24, water availability was recorded at 30.6 MAF, showing an increase of 4.1 percent over Rabi 2022-23. Overall domestic production of fertilizers during FY 2024 (July-March) increased by 17.3 percent to 3.253 million tonnes compared to 2.773 million tonnes in the same period of FY 2023. Fertilizer imports also increased by 23.7 percent, reaching 524 thousand tonnes. Consequently, the availability of fertilizer increased by 18.1percent to 3.776 million tonnes. Total off take of fertilizer nutrients also saw an 18.7 percent increase, reaching 3.957 million tonnes. This high offtake is attributed to the extraordinarily low offtake during the previous year due to floods.