Agriculture and Green

Revolution in Pakistan
Agriculture Sector (Introduction)
• Source of Economic Growth
Contribute 19.2% in GDP

• Food Security*
Population GR is 1.8% and 5th biggest country

• Employment Generation
121.1 million population in rural areas and this sector provide
employment 38.5% to labor force
Cont.

• Poverty Alleviation

• Supply of Raw Material and Development of Industrial Sector

• Source of Foreign Exchange earnings

• Great Potentials
Land Reforms (Agri Reforms)
• Justification of land reforms
Small farms have higher yield per acre than large
Agri remained stagnant in 1950s*
Agri provides not only foodgrains but also foreign earnings
Slow growth created crisis in BOP and food shortage in urban areas
• Redistribution of land among landless peasants.
• Discourage the concentration of land in few hands
• Protection of Rights of cultivators
• Agri Productivity and efficiency
• Reduce inequality
Cont.
• Land Reforms 1959
Ceiling on private ownership
But power of big landlord could not be reduced
Ceiling was enforced on individual not on family*

• Land Reforms 1972

150 acres irrigated and 300 unirrigated land
or equivalent to 12,000 PIUs
the area resumed by Govt was only 0.6 million acre (1.9 in 1959)
Cont.

• Land Reforms Failed to alter the unequal distribution of land

• Farm Mechanism and Problem of Employment
During HYV technology, rapid increase in tractors
Years Tractors

1959 2000

1968 18909

By 1975 35714

Between 1976 to 1981 75859

Cont.

• Two Question arises

why were large size tractors introduced where 88% farms below 25
acres in size?
why did tractorization occur at all in what is commonly regarded as a
“labour surplus” economy?
• Distribution by size in owned holding is unequal than distribution of
farm area by size of operated holding
• Landowners attracted by profitability of owner cultivation (after
availability of HYV technology)
Polarization in Rural Class Structure

• Polarization occurred in size distribution of farm

The Growth of Capitalist Farming

• Increased economic and social dependence of poor peasants

Increased Money Cost

• Seeds and Animal Manure
• Tractor ploughing, tube well water pesticides
 Green Revolution
• The Green Revolution means introduction of new technology in agriculture sector,
in order to increase its production through different measures.
Diversified efforts through following measures
• Introduction of new high yield varieties of wheat, rice, and maize
• Improvement in per acre yield through quality fertilizers to compensate for land
deficiencies in many less developed countries
• Pesticides and insecticides have expanded the acreage a single farmer can tend by
reducing the time required to disinfect the crop
• Irrigation has made double cropping feasible in many countries where formerly
one harvest a year was standard
• New methods of rotating crops were developed which increased land productivity
• Botanists have been able to breed the photosensitive genes out of plants . Making
planting possible at any time of the year.
Stages of Green Revolution

• Scientific Breakthrough

• Technological Breakthrough

• Production Breakthrough

• Agricultural Breakthrough
Impact of Green Revolution
• Impact on Agri Production
Type Year Production/income/
1959-60 3.7 Million tons
Wheat Production
1968-69 6.8 Million tons
1959-60 0.9
Rice Production
1968-69 2.1
1959-60 7.7 Billion Rs
Agri Income
1969-70 15.5 Billion Rs
1948-49 89
Index of Agriculture
1957-58 93
Productivity
1968-69 146
First five-year plan 1.8%
Growth Rate of
Second 3.8%
Agriculture Sector
Third 6.0%
Factors Contributed in Agri Production

• Govt Policies to provide subsidies and credit

• Incentive prices were offered

• enhancement of private investment in agriculture sector especially in

manufacturing and installation of tube wells and machinery and allied equipments.

• Transmission of the improved technology to the farmers through Extension

Service Programs.
Cont.
• Impact on Income Distribution
According to Rashid Amjad (1984)
• Green Revolution increased income disparity among different income groups,
landholders and farmers.

• Small farmers could not move to the new technology due to certain reasons:
New technology entailed high initial cost
Important inputs especially water and seeds were monopolized by large
farmers
Tube wells were only affordable by large landlords
Issuance of Credit to large farmers

• Regional Disparity
Critics by Akmal Hussain

• The term ‘Green Revolution’ refers to the adoption in the mid 1960s of the new
high yielding varieties (HYV) of food grains

• Three-fold increase in the output of food grains between 1967 to 1992

• But it demands timely application of technology (HYV seed, fertilizers and

irrigation water

• economic, social and ecological consequences

Cont.
• The Green Revolution technology itself was scale neutral*

• High profitability attracted large land owners

• Polarization in the size distribution of farms

• percentage share of both large farms (over 150 acres), and small sized farms (less
than 7.5 acres) increased while that of lower medium sized farms (7.5 to 25 acres)
decreased.

• The evidence shows that during the period 1961 to 1973 as many as 794,042
peasants entered the category of wage labourers, which constituted 43 percent of
the total agricultural labourers in Pakistan
Cont.

• growth of capitalist farming was accelerated

• capitalism in agriculture was accompanied by increased social and economic

dependence of the poor peasants on the landowners.

• Leverage for landlords and for the peasants intensified dependence.

• Income and economic inequalities

Reasons of GR Failure
• The new HYV seeds were built on the displacement of genetic diversity and were not well
adapted to the microbiology of local soils

• absence of adequate soil testing facilities at farm level

• Policy implementation
Even distribution of credit to all the farmers especially the weak and small was not
ensured
Storage capacity was not increased
Stability in agriculture prices not be maintained.
Opportunities to reinvest the surplus in agriculture sector shrinked
Proper agro-based industry was not developed