Sir: Pakistan has an agriculture-based economy and most of its population earns its bread and butter through farming and related businesses. Pakistan has rich resources of fertile land, abundant water and most favourable climate.
Pakistan basically belongs to the farming community. The agriculture sector was given importance in the 1960s but it has been facing successive governments’ neglect for the last few years. Agriculture contributes 21percent to Pakistan’s GDP, employs 43.5 percent of country’s workforce and contributes more than 66 percent to export earnings.
Wheat, rice, maize, barley, gram, cotton, sugarcane, tobacco are major export products which we get from our agriculture sector. Unfortunately this sector is not being paid proper attention and as a result, the production of agricultural crops has lowered. This apathetic attitude of the government has given birth to a number of problems.
One of the problems is non-availability or lack of resources to bring barren land under cultivation. This is the result that only 27.7 percent land is cultivated in Pakistan. New techniques of farming are not adopted by farmers, hence farmers are not able to buy advanced machines. For the betterment of the agriculture sector, advanced technology and better agriculture training should be imparted to farmers.
YOUSRA SHABBIR
Karachi