Pakistan Economy

BS (BA) 5TH
ALAMGIR KHAN
Part I: Agriculture Sector of Pakistan
Agriculture Sector in Pakistan
Land Distribution in Pakistan in 1950-55
Agriculture Sector in Pakistan
Green Revolution:

 Green revolution is one of the most important events in Pakistan’s agricultural

history, with extensive repercussions on other sectors occurred in mid-1960s.
 The technology package associated with it generated major changes in social,
economical and political structure of Pakistan and still its impact on each segment
is overwhelmingly observed today.
 Two sets of Land Reforms in 1959 and 1972 was unsuccessful (attempts without
any serious purpose)
 Green Revolution (1958-1969)
The annual growth rate between 1949 and 1958 was a mere 1.43% less than the annual growth rate in
population.
Between 1959 and 1964, the overall rate was 3.7% but this impressive rate was overshadowed by
even greater 6.3% in the next phase(1965-1970).
Green Revolution
 Causes of Growth
 In the first phase (1960-64), increase in irrigation facilities (Tubewells)
 About 25,000 tube wells were installed each costing Rs 5000-12000
 In the second phase, expanded irrigation facilities were supplemented by the
technology package of HYV seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
 Two HYV seeds were introduced in Pakistan, International Wheat & Maize Institute in
Mexico and International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.
 Increase tubewells from 34,000 to 79,000.
 Half of the irrigated area of the country (6 million) was cultivated.
 Fertilizer consumption saw dramatic increase of 150% and 235% in the first and second
phase accordingly.
 Wheat production increase by 91% and rice by 141%
 Green Revolution

Issues of the Tube wells:

 1. Location of Tube wells:

They were highly concentrated regionally, mainly in the rich, old settled and the canal
colony districts of the Punjab (i-e; 91 percent of the 76,000 tube wells in 1968). Sindh
was provided very few tube wells due to saline water which couldn’t be used for
agricultural purposes. Other regions were totally ignored.
 2. Size and cost:
Tubewells were mainly installed by landowners with over 25 acres of land. Huge variable
cost hindered installation in middle class which in a result only 4 percent installed tube
wells owning fewer than 13 acres.
 3. Inducement to invest in tubewells:
(Installation cost, fuel and maintenance)
 Green Revolution
Tractorization/ Mechanization

 Provision of cheap credit through institutions e.g. ADBP etc

 An overvalued exchange rate made tractors available at prices considerably below
world market prices.
 Import of large tractors (35 horse power) increase from 2000 in 1959 to 8000 and then
18,909 in 1968.
 Domination of large land owners were again seen as mostly tractors were owned by
farmers owning more 100 acres of land.
 Carl Gotsch reported that over 38% were located in the Multan Division, while 58% in
the three divisions of Lahore, Multan and Bahawalpur only.
 There was also a very close link with tube well ownership, where almost 75 percent
of privately owned tractors were on farms that had sunk tube wells.
 Green Revolution
Regional and Income Disparities
 Hamza Alavi writes that because private tube wells development is closely relative to
concentration of land in large farms, the Green Revolution has tended not only to
intensify already large disparities in income and wealth of the different strata of rural
population but by the same it has widened disparities between regions.
 Mahmood Hasan Khan says that since the use of fertilizers and new seeds was
premised on the availability of adequate water supply the lack of water caused
‘serious interregional’ and intra-farm disparities.
 Carl Gotsch has argued that one should not of the increase in agricultural growth in
Pakistan but rather of growth in a relatively few districts. Those districts in the
Punjab-Lyalpur (Faisalabad), Montgomery (Sahiwal) and Multan that grew at 8.9
percent per annum.
 Green Revolution
 Elite Farmer Strategy and Capitalist Development
 Green revolution was an elite farmer strategy because its principal beneficiaries were large
landowners only (Less than 5% of the rural population). One outcome over all observers are
agreed is that it resulted in the development of capitalist farming.
 Akmal Hussain: The new technology made it possible to accelerate agricultural growth
substantially through an elite farmer strategy which concentrated the new inputs on large farms.
Now the crucial determinants in yield differences became not the labour input/acre in which
small farms had been at an advantage, but the application of the seed-water-fertilizer package
over which the large farmers with their greater financial power had superior access.
 Shahid Javed Burki: Rapid agricultural growth was led by a new breed of dynamic middle class
farmers who were capitalist to start with. Under Ayub Khan, traditional big landlords were
replaced by the new middle-class landowners owning between 50 and 100 acres of land. This
rural middle class was considered a new powerful and independent factor in the political system.
 Hamza Alavi and Akmal Hussain believe that it was the large landlord and not the middle class
which was at the vanguard of this revolution. Farmers who had land over 100 acres were
dominant in the adoption of the new technology and in reaping the fruits of the Green Revolution.
 Green Revolution
 Social Effect:
 Displacement of Labour (both at low end and higher end of the spectrum).
[Sharecroppers, peasants, land owners]
 Increased rural-urban migration
 Increase in consumerism
 Emergence of small towns near agricultural areas due to requirement of new and
different services
 Awareness of disparities between farmers and regions
 Change of attitude towards education amongst the big farmer.
 Revolution in mechanical technology and chemical technology
 Size-efficiency relationship was reversed
Green Revolution

Political Effect:
 Nirmal Sanderatne: The overwhelming electoral victory of the PPP amply justified its
strategy [of making promises to the peasantry on agrarian reforms]. In turn these had
radicalized Pakistan’s politics. The PPP won conclusively in the heartland of the Green
revolution and some observers found a high correlation between the voting for the PPP
and the area under Mexi-Pak varieties of wheat.
 Victory of Awami Muslim League in East Pakistan and PPP in West Pakistan.
 Green Revolution
Land Reforms of 1959
 Assignment

Summary of Chapter 3 including Land reforms of 1972

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