Agriculture continues to sustain rural Pakistan amid FY25 climate strains

June 09, 2025 (MLN): Despite ongoing climatic challenges, Pakistan’s agriculture sector demonstrated resilience in FY25, growing by a modest 0.56% and continuing to anchor rural livelihoods and national food security.

Contributing 23.54% to the GDP and employing over 37% of the labor force, agriculture remains vital to Pakistan’s economic resilience.

According to the Economic Survey 2024–25, livestock led sectoral growth with an increase of 4.72%, reaffirming its role as the primary growth driver.

Forestry and fisheries also showed positive growth of 3.03 and 1.42%, respectively.

However, the crop sub-sector witnessed a contraction of 6.82%, largely driven by a steep 13.49% decline in important crops and a 19.03% drop in cotton ginning.

The sector’s mixed performance reflects the impacts of above-average monsoon rainfall, reduced sowing areas, and rising input costs.

Cotton production, for example, dropped by 30.7% to 7.08 million bales, and yield fell to 590 kg/ha from 717 kg/ha.

Similarly, wheat production decreased by 8.9%, mainly due to reduced cultivated area and high temperatures during the sowing season.

Nonetheless, the performance of other crops, which recorded 4.78% growth, partially offset losses and highlighted the sector’s potential for diversification.

Notably, rice maintained strong output levels, area under rice cultivation expanded to 3.9m hectares, reflecting a growth of 7.2%.

However, production volume experienced a marginal decline of 1.38%, falling to 9.72m tonnes

Livestock remained the strongest pillar, contributing 14.97% to GDP and 63.6% of agriculture value addition.

Milk and meat production increased by 3.2% and 2.7%, respectively, supported by growing herd sizes and improved veterinary services. Poultry, in particular, posted a robust 9.4% growth in meat production.

The government continues to promote modernization through improved water management, mechanization, certified seed distribution, and credit access.

However, the report underscores persistent structural inefficiencies, limited technical knowledge, and climate variability as pressing challenges.

Certified seed availability met only 35.6% of demand, while fertilizer offtake declined by 14.1% due to high costs and lower crop prices.

With water availability during both Kharif and Rabi seasons below long-term averages and rainfall patterns increasingly erratic, the urgency for climate-adaptive practices and policy continuity remains critical.

The government’s targeted investments, including under the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), aim to reinforce the sector’s strategic importance and enable a transition toward greater agricultural self-reliance.

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