The total number of the farmers across the country significantly grew as it was recorded at 11.7 million during the year 2024 as compared to 8.26 million farmers during the year 2010, according the 7th Agriculture Census of Pakistan 2024.
Compiled by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the agriculture census revealed that in 2024 most farms were owner-operated-about 10.38 million, compared to 6.74 million in 2010-indicating a strong shift toward farm ownership.
Meanwhile, the owner-cum-tenant farms declined to 0.55 million from 0.60 million, and tenant-only farms dropped to 0.77 million in 2024 from 0.91 million in 2010, showing a sharp reduction in tenancy-based farming. The data highlights a national trend toward land ownership and away from tenant farming.
Across provinces, Punjab had the highest number of farms (5.05 million), followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (4.17 million), Sindh (1.83 million) and Balochistan (0.63 million), with the majority in each province being owner operated farms. Even in Islamabad, nearly all of the 16,589 farms being owner operated.
The cultivated area of the country refers to the land actively used for agricultural purposes, including crop production and livestock farming and the total cultivated area of was reported to be 52,787,664 acres.
According the data, in 2024, the total number of farms across Pakistan was 11.7 million, showing an increase from 8.3 million in 2010. Along with increase in the total number of farms, the total farm area also increased, rising from about 52.9 million acres in 2010 to 59.3 million acres in 2024.
Similarly, the total cultivated area has increased from around 42.6 million acres in 2010 to 52.8 million acres in 2024. On average, each farm in 2024 was about 5.1 acres in size, down from 6.4 acres in 2010. The average cultivated land per farm also decreased from 5.2 acres in 2010 to 4.5 acres in 2024, reflecting the same tend of average farm size.
Breaking it down by province, Punjab had the highest number of farms at about 5.05 million
in 2024, with a farm area of 31.04 million acres and 29.6 million acres under cultivation. The average farm in Punjab was 6.1 acres, with 5.9 acres cultivated showing high efficiency.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa followed with 4.17 million number of farms, but had a significant total farm area of 8.8 million acres, and 7.2 million acres of cultivated land area. The average farm size here was 2.1 acres, with 1.7 acres cultivated.
Balochistan, although having only 0.63 million farms, had the largest average farm size of 16.1 acres in 2024, slightly lower than 22.7 acres in 2010. However, only 12.2 acres per farm were cultivated, which may indicate challenges in bringing all land into productive use. Sindh had about 1.83 million farms, with an average size of 5.0 acres and 4.4 acres cultivated.
Overall, data indicates a trend toward fewer but larger and more efficiently cultivated farms in Pakistan, with provincial differences varying agricultural land availability.
Meanwhile, in 2024, Pakistan’s total irrigated area was recorded at 45.9 million acres out of total, 14.4 million acres was irrigated by canals, as compared to 12.3 million acres in 2010. A slight decrease was observed in combined irrigation methods (canals, tube wells, pumps) 13.5 million acres in 2024 in comparison to 13.9 million acres in 2010.
Punjab has the largest irrigated area with 27.09 million acres in total, followed by Sindh with 7.3 million acres. Although in KPK and Balochistan areas are irrigated by canal but other sources are also used. Interestingly traditional methods like Rod Kohi and Karez are still functional in Balochistan.