A Sociological Analysis of Constraining Factors of Development in Agriculture Sector of Pakistan

Abstract

Agriculture sector is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy accounting over 70% of the export revenues andmore than 50% labor force. In last few decades, the productivity growth in agriculture sector of Pakistan isdilapidated due to disproportionate use of fertilizers and inappropriate technological progress. Agriculture is thelargest sector accounting almost 21% GDP of Pakistan. This paper scrutinizes the impacts of these miscellaneousconstraining factors on agriculture productivity of Pakistan. Farmers have to countenance staid challenges that havenegative impact on per acre yield of their farms. These factors comprise of sky-scraping prices of inputs,disproportionate burden of loans on farmers, land degradation, scarcity of irrigated water, inadequate provision ofappropriate infrastructural facilities and low quality of raw materials. A sample of N=365 respondents (farmers) wasinterviewed through multistage sampling technique. A non-parametric test (Chi-square) was applied on the data toevaluate the results of the empirical observations. In view of that the researcher instigate through this research thatinadequate provision of credit facilities, usage of obsolete agriculture methods on farms and various environmentalconstraints (such as loss of biodiversity, land degradation and climatic fluctuations) are the major causes of lowagriculture productivity in Pakistan. On the basis of these findings the researcher concluded that soil salinity, waterlogging, attack of pesticides, soil erosion and low quality of seeds are the foremost confronts that are faced by thefarmers pertaining to their agriculture productivity in Pakistan. Thus farm management practices, amendments inagriculture reforms as well as provision of passable financial and water resources to the farmers are the salientpolicy implications that can cope with various constraining factors in agriculture sector of Pakistan.

Key words: Productivity, credit, soil salinity, water logging, land degradation, pesticides, infrastructure, rawmaterials and farm management practices.