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| Wheat threshing |
Pakistan, after coming into existence in 1947, has survived many natural calamities like floods, earth quakes, drought and so on. One of many professions which has prospered from that time to the present day. Agriculture always had a major share in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Pakistan
and it has varied from 25% to 19%. Presently, agriculture is 21% of GDP. Agriculture sector in 2011-12 has generated jobs for as much as 46% of the population of Pakistan but in the rural areas 60% population is associated with agriculture.
With the rapid change of the picture to industrialization and investments from multinational companies the standard of living has been improved in the metropolitan cities of Pakistan but this has a detrimental affect towards the agriculture, the rich soils and fertile lands once used for cultivation are now being sold for establishing the model towns, industry, petrol pumps and restaurants along major highways and motorways.
Even in these circumstances the agriculture sector has kept its pace to meet the demands of fast growing population of Pakistan as well as exports are also increasing. The major exports of Pakistan include cotton, wheat, rice, mango, citrus, dates and high quality leather etc.
Much focus is being given now to meet the demands of farmer community in terms of subsidy, provision of health and disease resistant seed, health care of livestock and irrigation canals are also being cemented to reduce the dissipation of water from water channels.
In the past fiscal year 2011-12, agriculture sector showed a positive growth of 3.1% and it is attributed to good performance from the subsectors of agriculture, except minor crops.
So in the light of above discussion and the recent energy crisis and water scarcity problems in the country calls for bringing improvement in planning, research and development of new varieties of crop seeds which are more tolerant to drought and disease stress. Since crops are not only environment friendly but also protect the nature compared to the havoc role of industries and industrial wastes which do not have any proper system as yet.
Agriculture has always provided the raw material for so many important industries like food industry, leather industry, textiles, medicine etc. So we should see when to stop this rapid change of the fertile lands in the industrial estates or housing societies before its too late and we might need to import.
