Pakistan - Region Profile

With a population exceeding 180 million people, Pakistan is the sixth most populous country and with an area covering 796,095 sq. km. It is the 36th largest country in the world in terms of area. Agriculture is central to economic growth and development in Pakistan. Being the dominant sector it contributes 21.4 per cent to GDP, employs 45 per cent of the country’s labour force and contributes in the growth of other sectors of the economy. Important crops, such as wheat, rice, maize, cotton and sugarcane account for 25.2 percent of the value added in overall agriculture and 5.4 percent to GDP. The other crops account for 12.3 percent of the value added in overall agriculture. Table 1 illustrates the current area, productivity and production statistics of major crops in Pakistan.



Livestock contributes 55.4 percent to agricultural value added much more than the combined contribution of important and other crops (37.6 percent). Nutrient consumption in Pakistan is highly skewed towards nitrogen. Potassium consumption is very low as compared to nitrogen and phosphorus. Potash consumption is less than 1% of the total N+ P₂O₅+ K₂O consumption in the country. The fertilizer consumption in Pakistan over the past decade is given in Fig. 2. Using the area and production of major crops, the total nutrient (N, P₂O₅ and K₂O) removal by each crop was calculated and a nutrient balance sheet was prepared (table 2).


Table 1: Latest Crop Production Statistics of Pakistan-2012-13

Parameters	Rice	Wheat	Maize	Total Cereals	Total Pulses
Area	2300	8666	1085	12792	1552
Production	9400	23473	4631	38006	603
Productivity	4068	2709	4268	2971	388

Area ('000 ha); Production ('000 tonnes); Productivity (kg/ha); # Production and Productivity in 1000 bales of 180 kg each

Table 2: Nutrient balance sheet for major crops of Pakistan (2012-13)

Crop	Area (in '000 ha)	Production (in '000 tonnes)	Nutrient Removal (kg/tonne)			Total Removal (tonnes)
			N	P2O5	K2O	N	P2O5	K2O
Rice	2300	9400	20.1	11.2	30	188940	105280	282000
Wheat	8666	23473	24.4	8.6	32.8	572741.2	201867.8	769914.4
Maize	1085	4631	8.2	3.1	15.5	37974.2	14356.1	71780.5
Total Pulses	1552	603	40	5	20	24120	3015	12060
		Total removal by major crops				823775.4	324518.9	1135755
		Total fertilizer consumption in Pakistan				2853000	747000	21000
		Consumption * Efficiency factor				1141200	224100	14700
		Balance/Deficit				317424.6	-100419	-1121055

Efficiency of N=40%; P2O5= 30%; and K2O=70%

*Crop production and fertilizer use data are retrieved from Fertiliser Statistics, 2013-14, The Fertiliser Association of India, New Delhi; Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and FAO Web Page http://www.fao.org