UNIT 7
AGRICULTURE AND LIVESTOCK:
Pakistan's principal natural resources are arable land and water. About 25% of Pakistan's total land area is under
cultivation and is watered by one of the largest irrigation systems in the world. Pakistan irrigates three times more acres
than Russia. Agriculture accounts for about 23% of GDP and employs about 44% of the labor force. Pakistan is one of
the world's largest producers and suppliers of the following according to the 2014 Food and Agriculture Organization
of The United Nations given here with ranking:
• Apricot (4th)
• Cotton (4th)
• Sugarcane (4th)
• Milk (5th)
• Onion (5th)
• Date Palm (6th)
• Mango (7th)
• Oranges (8th)
• Rice (8th)
• Wheat (9th)
Pakistan ranks fifth in the Muslim world and twentieth worldwide in farm output.
Crops
The most important crops are wheat, sugarcane, cotton, and rice, which together account for more than 75% of the
value of total crop output.
Pakistan is a net food exporter, except in occasional years when its harvest is adversely affected by droughts. Pakistan
exports rice, cotton, fish, fruits (especially Oranges and Mangoes), and vegetables and imports vegetable oil, wheat,
cotton, pulses and consumer foods. The country is Asia's largest camel market, second-largest apricot and ghee market
and third-largest cotton, onion and milk market.
Livestock
According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan, the livestock sector contributes nearly 11 per cent of Pakistan's GDP.
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KEY POINTS:
What is agriculture?
• Agriculture is a primary industry concerned with obtaining raw material from the ground for
immediate consumption or for further processing.
• All types of agriculture can be viewed as a system with inputs, processes and outputs.
• The inputs determine the type of processes on the farms. The result of what the farmer does is the
output.
• The inputs fall into two groups.
(i) NATURAL (Physical)
• The factors of nature that affect the possibilities for different crops and animals .e.g. Land,
Soil, climate, water.
(ii) HUMAN (economic)
• The involvement of the human beings through capital, machines, fertilizers, labor, knowledge, land
ownership, traditions, irrigation, pesticides.
Types of farming:
(a) Small scale subsistence farming:
(b) Cash Crop Farming:
Cropping seasons in Pakistan:
• There are two cropping seasons.
• The crops that are sown at beginning of the winter season, from October to November and
harvested in early summer from April to May are known as Rabi crops.
• The crops that are sown in summer April to June and harvested in early winter from October to
November are known as Kharif crops. They are rice, sugar cane, millets, maize and cotton.
MAIN CROPS:
I: wheat:
• It is a staple food used in manufacture of bread and a variety of baked products.
• Low grades of wheat and by products o f the flour are used as feed for livestock.
• The canal irrigated areas of Punjab and Sindh meet most of the requirements for wheat.
• Waterlogged areas of the Indus plain are not suitable for the cultivation of wheat.
• Wheat is grown in few areas of KPK and Baluchistan.
Cultivation of wheat:
• In Oct. – December, after plowing the field, wheat seeds are sown directly into the ground.
• Wheat does not need a lot of water.
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• Farmers irrigate the land twice, the first irrigation is done one month after sowing and the second
is done one irrigation takes place one month before harvesting.
• Wheat is harvested after three months.
• Chaff is separated from the grain; the grain is then stored by the farmer for the use of his family
or transported to the market.
Growing wheat production:
• The yield of wheat has gradually increased in Pakistan with the introduction of new wheat
varieties and improved farming methods.
• There is improvement in the water management system to cut down water losses from the canals
to the fields.
• Chemical fertilizers are becoming more widely used.
• Government is providing loans on easy installments to purchase tractors etc.
• But Pakistan is rarely self –sufficient in wheat because of ever increasing population and gradual
decrease in cultivable area due to water logging and salinity.
• Maxi pak is one of the most widely used varieties sin Pakistan.
How is the cultivation of wheat related to the seasonal rainfall on the plateau?
• ploughing October – December /when first rain falls
• seed sown after rain
• rain continues through growing period/ some rain before harvest to swell the grain dry
period for harvest
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2: RICE:
• Rice is grown on a large scale for commercial purposes in Punjab and Sindh.
• In the northern hilly regions small scale subsistence rice farming is practiced.
• Rice seeds are initially sown into beds or nurseries.
• When the plant is about 9 inches high, it is transplanted into the prepared fields which have
flooded to a depth of 30 -37 cm.
• The rice fields are kept full of water until the rice is ripe.
• Threshing of rice is either done by draft animals or by a mechanical thresher.
• After threshing, rice is taken to the rice mills for polishing and packing.
• Rice husks are used for making cardboard or covering roofs of houses after mixing it with mud and
water.
• Use of Irri Pak variety has doubled the production of
rice.
• Export of basmati Rice has increased over the years.
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3: COTTON:
• Cotton the king of fiber is the most widely used textile fiber.
• Used in making cloths, furnishing fabrics, bed linen.
• It is a kharif crop.
• Cotton seeds are sown at a distance apart of 30 cm to 45 cm in April – May.
• One month later the fields are irrigated.
• A second irrigation takes place after a further two months.
• Cotton bolls ripen in the dry months of October and November.
• The plant reaches a height of up to 135cm to 150 cm.
• After picking cotton bolls are loaded onto trucks immediately and transported to ginning mill
where the seeds are separated from the lint (fluffy mass of fibers inside the cotton boll).
• Cotton seeds are used as animal feed and for the extraction of oil.
• Cotton lint is tied up in bales.
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Varieties of cotton:
• Old varieties like Pak. Upland and Desi.
• High yielding varieties like Nayyab 78, B-557, 149 – F
4: SUGAR CANE:
• Sugar, brown sugar and Gur are made.
• Sugar cane stalks 30 cm high are planted in April to May.
• A distance of 30 cm is kept between each stalk.
• The quality and height of sugar cane depends upon proper irrigation and fertilizers (potash).
• The height reaches to 6 to 7.3 feet and the crop can be rattooned and so harvested for 2-3 years.
• After the sugar cane is harvested it sends up new shoots called rations and these left to grow so
that they can be harvested in the following years.
• Cutting sugar cane requires manual labor.
• At the sugar mill the cane is scrubbed to remove the smell and dirt.
• After extracting the juice by crushing the cane through heavy rollers, the juice is further processed
to produce white sugar.
• Bagasse ans molasses are two major by products.
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5: MAIZE: • Pulses fix nitrogen in the soil therefore
helping to fertilize the crop that follows.
• It’s a kharif crop. • Pulses are considered as low value crops
• It’s a food grain as well as a raw because the cash returns are low and
material for edible oil production. consequently inputs are minimal.
• It is used in the manufacture of corn • Important pulses are Mung, Mash,
flour, custard powder and other Grams, Masoor.
processed foods.
• It’s an also used as fodder for
animals and poultry.
7: MILLETS:
6: PULSES: • Jowar and bajra are two millets
• Pulses are rich in proteins and are produced.
popular in the local diet. • They are fodder for animals, poultry.
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• 68 % edible oil is being imported.
8: OIL SEEDS:
• Oil seeds like sunflower, soya bean, rape 9: TOBACCO:
seed, mustard, sarson, rai, linseed are
used to extract edible oil. • Tobacco is grown mainly in NWFP
• The production of oilseeds is not (mardan peshwar), which accounts for
sufficient to cater for the needs of the about 65 % of the total production.
growing population.
LIVSTOCK FARMING IN PAKISTAN:
• Rearing animals is one of the oldest and most common occupations of Pakistan.
• Shamilat are the grazing fields of the villages.
• Farmers who own bullocks, cattle, buffaloes, or sheep are considered as respectable people.
• There are two types of farming, subsistence farming and commercial farming.
• There are three types of subsistence livestock farming.
(i) Nomadic:
• Nomadic people in Baluchistan and the desert areas of Punjab and sindh practice
subsistence farming
• They move from place to place along with their animals in search of food and water.
• They rear sheep, goats, and camels.
• Sheep and goats provide them with food in the form of milk and meat and camels carry
their loads for long distances.
(ii) Transhumance:
• Transhumance is the system of livestock farming in which the animals are kept on pastures highup
in the mountains in summer and brought down to lower pastures in winter.
• This system is common in the northern and the western mountains.
• Meat, dairy products and wool are the main outputs.
(iii) Settled:
• Subsistence livestock farming is also practiced in the villages of Punjab and Sindh.
• Cows and hens are kept for milk and eggs to be continued by the family.
• Excess milk is processed to make butter or ghee.
Subsistence livestock farming as a system:
• Feeding
INPUTS: • Milking manually
• Natural grazing fields for fodder • Slaughtering
• Water from ponds and lakes • Shearing wool from sheep.
• Open land OUTPUTS:
• Labor women and children of the family. • Milk
• Meat
PROCESS: • Wool
• Natural breeding • eggs
LIVESTOCK FARMING ON A COMMERCIAL FARM:
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• Commercial Livestock Farming is practiced either on a small scale by private owners or on a large
scale by government owned or military farms.
• Scientific methods are not necessarily to be used.
• Such dairy farms often lacking appropriate drainage or water supplies and a land use incompatible
with modern hygienic city life.
• Fodder has to be brought on from the nearest crop growing area, often by heavily overloaded
Lorries.
• Cattle dung is collected and dried in circular cakes plastered on any convenient wall and sold to
the market to be used as manure or domestic fuel.
• There are some notable exceptions such as Australian designed dairy farms for Islamabad and
Karachi, the Govt. dairy farm for Quetta etc.
• To boost livestock production scientific breeding methods and better nutritional diets are in use
on many of the government farms.
• Veterinary facilities are also being provided.
Main Livestock Resources:
(i) Cattle Factors affecting farming:
• Bullock
• Cow (i) Natural (physical)
• Camels • Topography
• Mules • Soil
• Water including rainfall
(ii) Buffaloes
• Temperature
• Nili bar
• Pests and diseases.
• Kundi
• Ravi (ii) Human (economic)
• Irrigation
• Marketing
(iii) Sheep and goats:
• Size of farm
• High yielding varieties
(iv) Poultry
• Mechanization
• Chicken (egg)
• Fertilizers
• Plant protection programmes
How the use of chemicals affect the environment:
• Farmer adds a nitrate fertilizer to increase crop yields.it is expensive to buy.
• Pesticides also drain into river water and cause pollution.
• Nitrates in rivers encourage growth of algae and large plants. They use up oxygen.
• Fish die out due to lack of oxygen.
• Water used for domestic supply affects human health.
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Study Photographs B and C (insert) which show parts of one of the many buffalo farms in the area of Karachi called Buffalo (Cattle Colony).
(i) How can you tell from Photograph B that this is a dairy farm?
(ii) Describe the shelter shown on Photograph C, also marked X on Photograph B, and suggest why such shelters are needed
for the buffalo.
(iii) Why is a large supply of water necessary for this farm?
(iv) No fodder crops are grown on this farm. How are farms like this supplied with food for the buffalo?
(v)Explain the importance of the buffalo farms of Buffalo to Karachi.
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