ISLAMABAD: The country's agriculture sector registered 2.67 percent growth rate against the target of 3.5 percent set for the fiscal year 2019-20, after missing cotton and sugarcane production targets, revealed the Economic Survey 2019-20.
The survey noted that there was no significant impact of Covid-19 on the agriculture sector. Cotton and sugarcane posted negative growth of 6.92 percent and 0.44 percent respectively.
Positive growth of 2.90 percent in important crops was observed due to an increase in production of wheat, rice, and maize at 2.45 percent, 2.89 percent, and 6.01 percent, respectively. Other crops have shown growth of 4.57 percent mainly because of an increase in the production of pulses, oilseeds, and vegetables.
Cotton ginning has declined by 4.61 percent due to decrease in the production of the cotton crop while the livestock sector has shown a growth of 2.58 percent.
Cotton contributes about 0.8 percent to GDP and 4.1 percent of total value addition in agriculture. During 2019-20, cotton was sown on an area of 2,527 hectares, which increased by 6.5 percent over last year's area (2,373 hectares). Cotton production is estimated at around 9.178 million bales, which is lower by 6.9 percent over the last year's production of 9.861 million bales. Even though the overall area increased over the last year, the overall performance remained below due to unfavourable weather and low water availability during important stages of plant development along with pest attacks.
Sugarcane contributes about 0.6 percent to GDP and 2.9 percent addition in agriculture. During 2019 sugarcane production decreased by 0.4 to 66.880 million tonnes as compared to 67.174 million tonnes of last year. The output may depict the pattern of cultivation i.e. 1,040 thousand hectares compared to 1,102 thousand hectares, a decline of 5.6 percent, with improved yields compared to 2018-19.
Rice contributes 3.1 percent of value added in agriculture and 0.6 percent in GDP. During two cropped area of 3,034 million hectare increased by 8.0 percent compared to 2,810 thousand hectares of last year. The production increased by 2.9 percent to 7.410 million tonnes against 7.202 million tonnes driven in part by higher domestic prices and availability of inputs on subsidized rates.
Wheat accounts for 8.7 percent to value addition in agriculture and 1.7 percent wheat crop production increased percent to 24.946 million tonnes over last year's production of 24.349 million tonnes. The area under cultivation increased percent to 8,825 thousand hectares over last year's area (8,678 thousand hectares) production increased due to increase in cultivated area and better crop yield.
During 2019-20, maize was cultivated on 1,413 thousand hectares and recorded an increase of 2.9 percent over last year's 1,374 thousand hectares. Its production increased by 6.0 percent to 7.236 million tonnes compared to last year's production million tonnes. The production increased due to increase in area and availability of improved variety of seed as well as economic returns.
During fiscal year 2020 (July-March), 2.748 million tonnes edible oil of value Rs 321.535 billion ($ 2.046 billion) was imported. Local production of edible oil during 2019-20 (July-March) is estimated at 0.507 million tonnes. Total availability of edible oil from all sources is provisionally estimated at 3.255 million tonnes.
Poultry meat production showed a growth rate of 9.1 percent whereas egg production showed a growth of 5.6 percent to 20.0 billion Nos. during 2019-20 as compared to previous year.
The total production of fish & fishery products has increased by 9.7 percent whereas marine and inland increased by 11.2 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively. During the year 2019-20 (July-March), a total quantity of 133,226 metric tonnes of fish and fishery products valued at $ 317.307 million (Rs 49,528 million) was exported. The export of fish & fishery products has increased by 2.7 percent in quantity term whereas in value terms it increased by 8.0 percent and in rupee terms it increased by 26.2 percent during 2019-20 (July-March).
The domestic production of fertilizers during fiscal year 2020 (July-March) increased by 5.8 percent over the same period of last year, the increase in domestic production of fertilizer is primarily due to the supply of additional gas for the fertilizers. However, the supply of imported fertilizer decreased by 20.7 percent and the total availability of fertilizer decreased by 0.28 percent during the prescribed period.
Total offtake of fertilizer nutrients witnessed decrease by 2.6 percent. Nitrogen offtake decreased by 2.4 percent, phosphate offtake decreased by 2.6 percent and potash offtake also decreased by 14.5 percent during FY2020 (July-March). The price of urea increased by 11.5 percent and DAP by 3.1 percent. Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) has been reduced to Rs 5/MMBTU which has resulted in a decrease in the cost of urea by Rs 398 per bag with effect from 28th January, 2020.
During fiscal year 2020 (July-March), banks have disbursed Rs 912.2 billion as agriculture credit which is 67.6 percent of the overall annual target and 13.3 percent higher than the disbursement of Rs 804.9 billion made during the same period of last year. The outstanding portfolio of agriculture loans have increased by Rs 42.2 billion i.e. from Rs 529.9 billion to Rs 572.1 billion or 7.9 percent at the end March 2020 as compared to the same period of last year. In terms of outreach, the numbers of outstanding borrowers have reached to 3.85 million in March 2020.
The country is maintaining 4.51 million hectares to 5.01 percent area under forest cover, out of which 3.44 million hectares of forests exist on state-owned lands and remaining on communal and private lands.
Over the years, livestock as subsector has surpassed the crop subsector as the biggest contributor to value addition in agriculture. Presently, it contributes 60.6 percent to the overall agriculture and 11.7 percent to the GDP during 2019-20. Gross value addition of livestock has increased from Rs 1,430 billion (2018-19) to Rs 1,466 billion (2019-20), showing an increase of 2.5 percent over the same period of last year.
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