Country faces most difficult agricultural year in 2025
LAHORE: Farmers’ organisations have described 2025 as one of the most difficult years for Pakistan’s agriculture sector, pushing growers to what they call a crossroads of despair amid the persistent absence of fair crop prices. While resilience remains a defining feature of agriculture, stakeholders warn it can no longer compensate for weak policymaking, fiscal constraints, and the lack of long-term political consensus.
Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) President Khalid Mahmood Khokhar said farmers are harvesting crop after crop without access to remunerative prices, severely undermining household sustainability.
“Whether it is kinnow or sugarcane, growers are deeply troubled. This is no longer abstract anxiety; it is about feeding children and basic survival,” he said at a press conference.
Khokhar recalled that when farmers received reasonable prices, agriculture recorded visible growth, underlining its critical role in the broader economy. “Today, suppressed prices have pushed agricultural growth into negative territory, while exports of major crops have declined sharply,” he said.Criticising the politicisation of agriculture, he said Pakistan is among the few countries where crop pricing becomes a political battleground.
“Elsewhere, governments and opposition parties work together on long-term agricultural policy. In Pakistan, the lack of consensus means farmers ultimately pay the price,” he added.
Rising costs are further intensifying pressure.
“Agriculture is on life support. Pakistani farmers pay around Rs 4,300 per fertilizer bag, while Indian farmers reportedly pay close to Rs 800. Competing under such asymmetrical conditions is not viable,” Khokhar maintained.
He also warned of rising anger over water security, particularly concerns linked to upstream developments on the Chenab River. “For an already distressed farming community, fears of reduced water availability add another layer of uncertainty,” he cautioned.
Aamer Hayat Bhandara, co-founder of agricultural think tank Agri Republic, described 2025 as a defining year for Pakistan’s agriculture and rural economy, shaped by policy reform efforts, extreme climate events, and externally imposed fiscal constraints.
“It was a year in which farmers showed resilience and provincial governments demonstrated administrative capacity, yet deep structural contradictions continued to undermine sustainability,” he told Business Recorder.
One of the most significant events was Punjab’s largest recorded flood, which submerged vast agricultural areas, damaged crops, disrupted supply chains, and displaced rural populations. Despite weak disaster preparedness at the grassroots, the crisis was largely contained through direct political leadership by the Punjab chief minister, her cabinet, and district administrations.
Timely evacuations, protection of major urban centres, restoration of connectivity, and emergency relief prevented what could have escalated into a large-scale humanitarian crisis. The response highlighted strong district-level coordination but also exposed the urgent need to institutionalise disaster preparedness at union council and village levels.
Bhandara acknowledged Punjab’s agricultural support initiatives, including the Kissan Card, Green Tractor Scheme, tube well solarisation, and Agri Malls. However, he said these were overshadowed by a major federal-level policy failure: the decision not to procure wheat.
Driven by IMF-imposed fiscal constraints, the move limited state intervention in output markets and exposed farmers to extreme price volatility at harvest.
“With production costs rising and market prices falling below cost, farmer losses are estimated between Rs 250 and 300 billion nationwide,” he noted.
Cotton, once Pakistan’s backbone crop, also failed to recover meaningfully. Taxes on local cotton, combined with poor seed quality, pest pressure, and heat stress, kept yields well below historic levels, forcing continued reliance on imports and adding pressure on foreign exchange reserves.
Bhandara stressed that Pakistan has yet to distinguish between policies aimed at keeping food affordable for consumers and those needed to ensure farmer profitability.
“Price control through coercive administration, without farm-gate income protection, is neither economically viable nor socially just,” he said.
“The way forward requires a shift toward technology-led productivity, market and export diversification, value addition, institutionalized disaster preparedness, and a clearly defined farmer income framework insulated from consumer subsidy objectives,” he concluded.
Progressive farmer Abad-ur-Rehman Khan said wheat cultivation declined this year as growers anticipated unfair pricing.
“At harvest, wheat sold at throwaway prices. I did not grow wheat this year and had to purchase it for household consumption at Rs 2,200 per maund,” he said.
He added that sugarcane farmers were paid below Rs 400 per maund during December and January. Although prices improved later, most farmers had already sold their crop at lower rates. Maize production also declined due to climate variability, with output falling 25–40 percent for many growers despite relatively better prices.
After several years of strong returns, the potato crop faced oversupply in 2025, triggering a sharp price downturn that is expected to worsen with the 2026 crop. Land lease rates have declined by 20–40 percent, reflecting growing uncertainty across rural markets.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026