Crops registered a 3.02 percent growth against a negative growth of 4.97 percent during the same period of last year. The growth of sub sector of important crops, other crops and cotton ginning posted growth of 4.12 percent, 0.21 percent and 5.59 percent, respectively against last year's growth of (-)5.47 percent, 0.59 percent and (-)22.12 percent respectively. Other sub sectors of agriculture like livestock, forestry and fishing posted growth of 3.43 percent, 14.49 percent and 1.23 percent, respectively.
The important crops including wheat, rice, sugarcane, cotton and maize accounted for 23.85 percent of the value added in overall agriculture and 4.66 percent of GDP. The other crops account for 11.03 percent of the value added in overall agriculture and 2.15 percent of GDP.
The cotton production was estimated at 10.671 million bales, registering a 7.6 percent increase over the production of 9.917 million bales during 2015-16 but was lower than the target of 14.1 million bales by a considerable margin. Cotton crop has a 1.0 percent share in GDP and contributes 5.2 percent to agriculture value addition. The weaker than expected recovery in cotton production is mainly due to a decline of 14.2 percent in the sowing area which stood at 2489 thousand hectares during 2016-17 compared to 2902 thousand hectares during the corresponding period of last year due to exceptional losses from previous year's pest infestation and low domestic prices at the time that pushed growers away from cotton to other competitive crops (sugarcane and maize).
The survey revealed that in 2016-17, wheat crop was sown on an area of 9052 thousand hectares, witnessing a decrease of 1.9 percent compared to 9224 thousand hectares during the same period of last year. Wheat production was estimated at 25.750 million tons during 2016-17, witnessing an increase of 0.5 percent over last year's production of 25.633 million tons. The production increased due to better supply of inputs.
Sugarcane production accounted for 3.4 percent in agriculture's value addition and 0.7 percent in overall GDP. During 2016-17, the area cultivated for sugarcane crop reached 1217 thousand hectares compared to last year's area of 1131 thousand hectares, showing an increase of 7.6 percent. Sugarcane production for the year 206-17 increased to 73.6 million tons from 67.5 million tons of last year's production, showing an increase of 9.0 percent due to an increase in area cultivated as there was a shift from other competitive crops facing frequent distress, for example from cotton crop which suffered on account of pest attacks.
Rice accounts for 3.0 percent in value addition in agriculture and 0.6 percent of GDP. In 2016-17, rice crop was sown on an area of 2724 thousand hectares showing a decrease of 0.6 percent over the last year's area of 2793 thousand hectares. Rice production stood at 6849 thousand tons achieving its targeted production of 6838 thousand tons and showing an increase of 0.7 percent over corresponding period of last year's production of 6801 thousand tons. Rice area decreased due to a decline in domestic prices of rice which reduced the area under the crop and growers shifted to sugarcane and maize crop.
Maize contributes 2.7 percent to value addition in agriculture and 0.5 percent to GDP. During 2016-17, area sown under maize crop has increased to 1334 thousand hectares, showing a significant increase of 12 percent over last year's sown area of 1191 thousand hectares. Maize crop production stood at record high of 6.130 million tonnes during 2016, showing a major increase of 16.3 percent over the last year's production of 5.271 million tons.
Livestock sector accounts for a 58.33 percent share in agriculture. It witnessed a growth of 3.43 percent compared to 3.36 percent during corresponding period of last year. Gram is the largest Rabi pulse crop, accounting for 76 percent of total production of pulses in the country. It registered an increase of 25.5 percent in production during 2016. The production of Bajra also posted an increase by 1.7 percent during 2016 as compared to the same period of last year.
The production of Barley, Jowar, Rapeseed & Mastard and Tobacco has witnessed a decline in production during 2016-17 and posted negative growth of 9.8 percent, 7.5 percent, 3.2 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively, over the same period of last year due to decrease in area sown.
During 2016-17, the production of Moong, Onion and Chillies recorded positive growth of 27.4 percent, 2.7 percent and 0.2 percent respectively compared to production of corresponding period last year. The reason for increase in production is expansion in area cultivated. However, the production of pulses Masoor (Lentil), Mash and Potato decreased by 17.9 percent 15.3 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017