Fragmented holdings rise 76% as average farm size shrinks

July 09, 2026 (MLN): Pakistan's farm structure is fragmenting at a faster pace than a decade ago, with the number of fragmented farms climbing 76% to 4.98 million in the 7th Agricultural Census 2024, from 2.83 million recorded in the 2010 census, according to PBS data.

More striking than the rise in fragmented-farm count is the extent of fragmentation itself: the average number of fragments per fragmented farm more than doubled, from 3 in 2010 to 7 in 2024, a 133% increase.

This indicates that individual holdings are being split into a growing number of smaller, non-contiguous parcels.

The trend coincides with a broader shift in farm scale nationally. The total number of farms rose 34% over the same period, to 11.10 million from 8.26 million, while average farm size fell 17%, from 6.4 acres to 5.3 acres.

Total farm area itself grew a more modest 12%, to 59.30 million acres, indicating that the increase in farm count has come primarily through subdivision of existing agricultural land rather than expansion of cultivated frontier.

Provincial data show Balochistan retains by far the largest average farm size at 16.1 acres, more than triple the national average, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has the smallest at 2.5 acres.

This reflects the province's more mountainous terrain and smallholder-dominated structure.

Within Sindh, the pattern is particularly pronounced at the division level: Larkana reported the highest number of farms in the province (629,800, or 35% of Sindh's total) but the smallest average farm size at just 1.9 acres, compared to Hyderabad's 8.6 acres on a much smaller farm count (358,800).

In Punjab, Sargodha division reported the largest average farm size at 9 acres against a provincial average of 5.3 acres.

Agricultural economists have long flagged farm fragmentation as a structural constraint on productivity and mechanisation uptake in Pakistan, given the higher per-acre cost of inputs, irrigation, and equipment access on smaller, scattered plots.

The latest census data, the first comprehensive, geo-tagged count since 2010, gives policymakers an updated baseline to assess whether land consolidation or cooperative farming interventions are gaining traction, or whether inheritance-driven subdivision continues to outweigh them.

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