LAHORE – Decrease in production of two major crops, rice and cotton, has severely affected overall performance of agriculture sector, reveal Economic Survey 2022-23.
Despite devastating floods that washed away standing crops and livestock, one of the most important sectors of country’s economy grew by 1.55 per cent as compared to last year’s growth of 4.27pc.
Cotton production decreased to 4.91 million bales as compared to 8.33 million bales last year, recording a decrease of 41pc.
Production of export oriented rice crop also declined to 7.32 million tonnes this year compared to 9.32 million tonnes last year, a 21.5pc decrease.
Increase in production of other major crops such as sugarcane, wheat and maize helped improving overall performance of the agriculture sector.
Sugarcane recorded production of 91.11 million tonnes as compared to last year’s 88.65 million tonnes, showing slight increase of 2.8pc.
Maize production increased by 6.9pc to 10.18 million tonnes against last year’s 9.52 million tonnes.
Similarly, wheat production reached 27.63 million tonnes this year compared to 26.21 million tonnes last year, showing increase of 5.4pc.
Other crops having share of 14.49pc in agriculture value addition and 3.32pc in GDP, grew by 0.23pc during 2022-23 due to increase in output of oilseeds.
Gram production declined by 24.7pc to 238,000 tonnes compared to 316,000 tonnes last year due to decrease in sowing area. The production of rapeseed and mustard, bajra and tobbaco recorded an increase of 98pc, 13.3pc and 0.1pc respectively. However, production of Jowar and barley declined to 23.4pc and 2.6pc respectively.
During 2022-23, the production of potato increased by 4.8pc, while there is decrease in the production of moong (48.9pc), chilies (43.1pc), mash (31.1pc), masoor (2.6pc) and onion (18.3pc).
Fishing sector having share of 1.39pc in agriculture value addition and 0.32pc in GDP, grew at 1.44pc compared to 0.35pc last year.
Livestock having share of 62.68pc in agriculture and 14.36pc in GDP, grew at 3.78pc in 2022-23 compared to 2.25pc last year.
Forestry sector having share of 2.23pc in agriculture value addition and 0.51pc in GDP grew at 3.93pc due to increase in timber production compared to 4.07pc last year.
