Agriculture is the one sector of Pakistan's economy that never stops being relevant, no matter how much the headlines focus on textiles, IT exports, or the stock market. It feeds a population of over 255 million people, employs roughly a third of the country's workforce, and still generates close to a quarter of national income — a share far higher than almost any other economy at Pakistan's income level.
This article pulls together the freshest official numbers — from the Pakistan Economic Survey 2025–26, the 7th Agricultural Census (2024), and data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) — to lay out exactly where Pakistani agriculture stands right now, before we dig into its problems and potential in the rest of this series.
Agriculture's Share of GDP and Employment
According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2025–26,
agriculture contributed 23.4% of national GDP and employed 33.1% of
the labour force during the fiscal year. Both figures have drifted down
slightly over the past few years — not because farming is shrinking, but
because services and industry are simply growing faster and absorbing more
workers, especially in urban centres.
Even so, this puts Pakistan in an unusual global position. Comparative data compiled from World Bank and OECD sources shows Pakistan's agricultural share of GDP sitting at roughly 22–24%, compared with about 16% in India, 7% in China, and under 1% in the United States. There is a well-documented global pattern: the higher a country's GDP per capita climbs, the smaller agriculture's share of the economy tends to become. Pakistan, with a GDP per capita of roughly $1,901 in FY26, remains firmly on the "agriculture-dependent" side of that curve — which is exactly why what happens on Pakistani farms matters so much to the wider economy and to poverty levels, which stood at 28.9% in the latest survey.
The broader macro picture for FY2025–26 was actually one of Pakistan's stronger years in a while: real GDP grew 3.7%, the fastest pace in four years, and nominal GDP hit a record Rs 126.9 trillion (about $452.1 billion). Agriculture's own growth of 2.89% — nearly double the 1.53% recorded the year before — was a meaningful contributor to that recovery, and arguably a more impressive one given the year included serious flooding.
Sector-Wise Performance: Who Actually Drove the Growth
Break agriculture into its four official sub-sectors and a
clear pattern emerges:
- Livestock
grew 3.75%, up from 2.95% a year earlier, and now accounts for a
striking 62.4% of total agricultural value addition and 14.6% of
national GDP on its own.
- Crops
grew 1.44%, a genuine turnaround from a 1.01% contraction the previous
year.
- Forestry
grew 2.02%, and fisheries grew 1.66% — both steady, if
unspectacular.
Here's the detail that matters most: the five major crops — wheat, rice, sugarcane, cotton, and maize — collectively grew just 0.65%, far below their 6.7% target. In other words, the sector's headline growth number flatters the reality on the ground for traditional staple farming. The real strength came from livestock and, as we'll see below, from smaller crops that rarely make headlines.
Major Crops: A Genuinely Mixed Harvest
The FY2025–26 crop season told two very different stories
depending on which commodity you looked at.
The winners:
- Sugarcane
had a record year, rising 6.2% to 89.45 million tonnes, thanks to
expanded cultivation area and a 3.7% yield improvement.
- Wheat
output climbed 4.3% to 29.61 million tonnes, supported by the
Interim Wheat Policy 2025–26 and better access to certified seed and
fertiliser.
- Rice
production rose 2.8% to just under 10 million tonnes, driven by a
6.6% yield improvement even though the area under cultivation actually
shrank.
The losers:
- Cotton
slipped 0.5% to 7.05 million bales, continuing a long-term decline
as growers increasingly switch to more profitable crops.
- Maize
fell 2.68% to 8.79 million tonnes, largely due to flood-related
yield losses.
What's easy to miss in the "big five" numbers is
how well everything else did. Minor crops and horticulture had a genuinely
strong year: chickpeas surged 50.4%, bananas rose 30.8%, potatoes
climbed 27.6%, mangoes grew 11.6%, and vegetables overall
increased 12.6%. For a country whose agricultural policy conversation is
dominated by wheat and cotton, this quiet horticultural boom is one of the more
underrated stories in the FY26 data.
On the input side, total fertiliser nutrient offtake during July–March reached 3,795 thousand tonnes, up 11.4% year-on-year — though the composition shifted: nitrogen offtake rose 14.8% and potash surged 26.2%, while phosphate offtake actually fell 1.9% as elevated prices pushed some farmers to cut back.
Livestock: Pakistan's Quietest Growth Engine
If there's one part of Pakistani agriculture that just keeps
delivering, it's livestock. The 2024 Agricultural Census recorded a national
herd of roughly 251.3 million animals, growing at about 3.1% annually
since 2006. More recent Economic Survey figures put the buffalo population at 49.1
million, cattle at nearly 62 million, goats at 91.8 million,
and sheep at 33.5 million.
This isn't a marginal, subsistence-level activity anymore — livestock now generates well over three-fifths of all agricultural value addition in Pakistan. Rising domestic demand for milk, meat, and dairy, combined with growing export interest from Gulf markets for halal products, makes livestock arguably the single most dependable growth driver in the entire agricultural economy.
What the 2024 Agricultural Census Shows About Farm Structure
After a 14-year gap, Pakistan finally completed its 7th
Agricultural Census in 2024 — the country's first fully digital count of
farms, livestock, and machinery. It offers the clearest structural picture of
Pakistani farming in over a decade.
The number of farms rose sharply, from 8.26 million in
2010 to 11.7 million in 2024 — a 42% increase. Cultivated land also
expanded, from 42.6 million acres to 52.8 million acres. But because
land grew far more slowly than the number of farms, the average farm size
shrank from 6.4 acres to just 5.1 acres, and today 97% of Pakistani
farmers own less than 12.5 acres.
Regionally, Punjab remains the clear centre of gravity: the
census recorded roughly 5.05 million farms covering over 31 million
acres in the province. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa registered around 4.17 million
farms, Sindh about 1.82 million farms covering 9.19 million acres,
and Balochistan close to 633,000 farms, though its holdings tend to be
considerably larger on average.
The census also confirmed how completely irrigation now dominates Pakistani farming: irrigated land reached 45.9 million acres, while rain-fed (barani) farming fell to just 4.9 million acres, down from 8.4 million acres in 2010. The Indus irrigation network isn't just an important feature of Pakistani agriculture anymore — it is nearly the entire story of how the country farms.
Trade and Export Context
Agriculture's fingerprints extend well beyond the farm gate. Textile exports — built almost entirely on the domestic cotton value chain — reached $16.3 billion, Pakistan's single largest export category. Food exports told a tougher story in FY26, however: the category recorded a combined decline of $1.5 billion, with rice exports falling $1.1 billion and sugar exports dropping $403 million, partly a reflection of stronger domestic demand and export policy shifts. It's a useful reminder that a good production year on the farm doesn't automatically translate into a good export year — trade policy, global prices, and domestic consumption all get a say too.
Where This Leaves Pakistani Agriculture
Put together, the FY2025–26 picture is one of resilience
rather than triumph. The sector absorbed a genuinely difficult flood season and
still grew faster than the year before, propped up largely by livestock and
horticulture rather than the traditional staple crops that dominate the policy
conversation. The 2024 census, meanwhile, has exposed just how fragmented and
undersized the average Pakistani farm has become — a structural weakness that
no single good harvest can fix.
That sets up the two questions this series tackles next: what
exactly is holding the sector back, and where does its real growth
potential lie? Part 2 digs into the problems — water, climate, land
fragmentation, and more — in detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of Pakistan's GDP comes from agriculture in 2026?
Agriculture contributed 23.4% of Pakistan's national GDP in
FY2025–26, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey.
How many people does agriculture employ in Pakistan?
The sector employs about 33.1% of Pakistan's total labour force, making it the
country's single largest source of employment.
Which crop performed best in Pakistan's FY2025–26 season?
Sugarcane was the standout performer, growing 6.2% to a record 89.45 million
tonnes, ahead of wheat's 4.3% growth to 29.61 million tonnes.
How many farms does Pakistan have, and how big is the average farm?
The 7th Agricultural Census (2024) recorded 11.7 million
farms nationwide, with an average farm size of just 5.1 acres — down from 6.4
acres in 2010.
