Economic perspectives of major field crops of Pakistan: An empirical study

Abstract

Agriculture is considered the backbone of Pakistan's economy, which relies heavily on its major crops. There are vast gaps between the acquired and actual output of produce, which suffers due to a lack of appropriate technology, use of inputs at improper times, unavailability of water and land use and inadequate education about insect pest control, which not only negatively affects the produce but also significantly reduces the amount of produce. Farmers mainly use synthetic chemicals for the control of insect pests, but these are used unwisely. To emphasize the major shortfalls and actual performance of major field crops, this study investigated the relationship between agricultural GDP and the output of major crops, including wheat, rice, sugarcane, maize and cotton, in Pakistan over a period of 65 years from 1950 to 2015. Time series data were collected from the Economic Survey of Pakistan (various publications). Crop data were analysed using the ordinary least square method and the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test, and the results were interpreted using Johansen's co-integration test. Our study finds that the output of wheat, rice and cotton has a positive and significant relationship with the agricultural GDP of Pakistan, while the output of sugarcane has a negative and non-significant relationship with the agricultural GDP of Pakistan. Therefore, this study recommends that the government of Pakistan should launch new funding programmes for the development of the agricultural sector.