Agriculture

Agriculture is a primary industry concerned with obtaining raw material from the ground for
immediate consumption or for future processing.
All agricultural systems operate with INPUTS, PROCESSES and OUTPUTS.

Name three types of farming practiced in Pakistan?

• Small scale subsistence farming
• Cash crop farming
• Livestock farming
Explain small scale subsistence farming.
This type of farming mainly produces food and raw materials for the people working in the farm.
After fulfilling their (people working in the farm) needs, surplus produce is sold in the market.
However surplus (extra) comes as a bonus, and mainly profit is not the motive. As about 34% of
subsistence farms are smaller than the normal size of a subsistence farm (5 hectares), therefore,
these farms are not enough to make farmers both ends meet.
Therefore, subsistence farmers usually look for other sources of income too, besides farming.

Q) How does a small scale subsistence farm work?

Small scale subsistence farm depends on nature.
Inman inputs are obtained during process of farming e.g. natural manure and seeds.
Economic inputs are transferred from one generation to another such as animals, wooden plough
and land.
The processes are completed with the manual labor of family members.
⇒ Women may bring water from irrigation from the well.
⇒ Women may milk buffaloes, cows and goats etc.
⇒ Also can they take part in harvesting.
Outputs from the farm vary from year to year depending on factors such as timely rainfall,
prevention of attacks by pests and diseases.
Surplus, if any, is sold to the shops and profit earned is used to pay back loans, and buying basic
necessities of life. Some profit is also invested back into the farm for maintaining implements
(tools), and buying seeds and fertilizers.

Explain cash crop farming.

• It means the growing of agricultural crops for sale.
• Profit is the primary/main motif.
• A crop/crops grown for sale is known is cash crop/s.
• Farmers practicing cash crop farming prefer growing those crops which can bring high
yields and maximize profit.

How can a cash crop farmer maximize his profit?

• A cash crop farmer wants to increase his agricultural output and maximize his profit by
using modern methods and new techniques of farming.
• He will use most of the following:
⇒ Chemical fertilizers
⇒ High yielding seeds
⇒ Proper distribution of canal water
⇒ Skilled labor with better farming knowledge
⇒ Use of machinery (tractors, threshers, harvesters) to speed up the process on the farm.
⇒ To protect crops from pests and insects, pesticides and insecticides will be used.

What are the factors on the basis of which a farmer selects a crop to grow?
Crop is selected on the basis of:
• Demand of the crop
• Market price of the crop
• Favorable government policies
• Favorable conditions (land and climate)

Explain the two types (season) of crops in Pakistan.

Rabi Crop:
→ Is sown at the beginning of winters (Oct-Nov)
→ It is harvested in early summers (April/May)
→ It includes wheat, barley, grams and pulses.
Kharif Crop:
→ It is sown in summers (April-June)
→ It is harvested in early winters (Oct-Nov)
→ It includes rice, sugarcane, millet, maize and cotton.

Comparing small scale subsistence and cash crop farming as systems (inputs, processes,
outputs)
Small scale subsistence farming Cash crop farming

Inputs Natural: Natural:

• Land • Land
• Soil • Soil
• Climate • Climate
• Water from underground and rivers • Water from underground
and rivers
Question: Human: Human:
How inputs
• Irrigation system • Irrigation system
differ on a
small scale • Natural manure • Chemical fertilizers
subsistence • Draft power from bullocks • Farm machinery
farm from a • Traditional wooden plough • High yielding variety of
cash crop seeds
• Desi varieties of seeds
farm?
• Whole family works on farm • Skilled labor
• Inherited knowledge about farming • Knowledge about new
methods
• Pesticides and insecticides
Processes • Ploughing • Ploughing
• Sowing • Sowing
• Irrigating • Irrigating
• Fertilizing • Weeding
• Weeding • Threshing
• Threshing • Harvesting
• Milking
• Breeding
Outputs Rice, wheat, maize, vegetables, millet Cotton, wheat, rice, sugarcane, oil
seeds, tobaccos
 Main crops
Wheat:
Varieties of wheat
Makki pak

What is wheat used for?

• Wheat is a staple food.
• Used in the manufacture of bread (roti) and a variety of baked products.
• Low grade wheat and by products of flour-mills used as feed for livestock.

Explain the process of cultivation of wheat.

• In Oct-Nov, after ploughing of field, wheat seeds are sown in the ground.
• Normally land is irrigated twice.
• First irrigation is done one month after sowing and 2nd irrigation takes place one month
before harvest.
• After a period of three months, wheat is harvested.
• A lot of labor is required at the time of harvest.
• Chaff is then separated from grain. Grain is then stored either for consumption or for sale.

Why has yield of wheat gradually increased in Pakistan?

• Due to new wheat varieties and improved farming methods.
• Use of HYVs.
• Chemical fertilizers.
• Improved water management.
• Govt. providing easy loans to purchase agricultural machinery like tractors etc.
• Support price fixed for wheat.

Why is Pakistan not self-sufficient in wheat/ Why wheat has to be imported?

• Ever increasing population.
• Gradual decrease in cultivable area due to water-logging and salinity.

Geographical requirements for wheat cultivation:

Temperature:
• Mild temp. 10-20oC at time of growing.
• Warm temp. 25-30oC at the time of ripening.
• Needs 90-120 days with mild and moist weather.
Rainfall:
• Moderate rainfall
• Mostly depends on irrigation
• Only Potwar plateau and some parts of NWFP are rain fed regions.
Soil:
• Moderately stiff, loamy or clayey soil
• Flat or undulating land to facilitate use of machinery
• Land must be well-drained
Rice: important, as foreign exchange is earned from its export.

Explain the process of cultivation of rice.

• Mainly grown in Punjab, Singh, and parts of NWFP.
• Rice seeds are initially sown in beds/nurseries.
• When plants are about 9 inches high, they are transplanted into the prepared (ploughed
and weeded) fields which have been flooded to a depth of 30-37cm.
• Rice fields are kept full of water until the rice is ripe.
• Water is drained off before harvesting begins.

Processes after harvesting

• After harvesting, threshing of rice is either done by draft animals or by a mechanical
thresher.
• After threshing, rice is taken to rice mills for polishing and packing.
• A by-product-rice husks are used for making cardboard or covering roofs of houses after
mixing it with mud and water.

High-yielding varieties of rice:

Use of Irri-Pak has doubled the production of rice, thus increasing export of rice.

Name a type of machine that can be used for rice cultivation instead of human labor.
Rice transplanter.

Geographical requirements – rice:

Temperature:
• Mean temp. of 20-30oC with no cold season.
• A warm, dry period for harvest.
Rainfall:
• Heavy rainfall of at least 1270mm but over 2000mm is ideal.
• Irrigation bridges the rainfall gap.
• Plenty of rain required during growing period,
Land and soil:
• Level, flat ground as it can be more easily irrigated.
• Soil should be loamy or clayey.
Human inputs:
• Cheap and abundant labor required or adequate machinery for fields preparation,
sowing, transplanting, harvesting.
• irrigation

Cotton: is known as ‘king of fiber’. It is used for making clothes, furnishing fabrics, bed linen
and industrial fabrics.
• It is a Kharif crop sown in April-May and harvested in Oct-Nov.

Explain the process of cultivation of cotton.

• Cotton seeds are sown at a distance of 30-45cm apart, in April-May.
• One month after sowing, the fields are irrigated.
• A second irrigation takes place after a further 2 months.
 • Cotton bolls ripen in the dry months of Oct-Nov and plant reaches a height of up to 135-
150cm.
• Cotton picking starts.

What are the stages that raw cotton has to go through after picking?
• After picking, cotton bolls are loaded onto trucks immediately, and transported to
ginning mills.
• In ginning mills, cotton seeds are separated from lint (cotton fiber).
• Cotton seeds are used as animal feed and for the extraction of oil.
• Cotton lint is tied up in bales for further processing, and sent to cotton textile mills,
where it undergoes the processes of spinning and weaving.

What harms the cotton crops?

• Cotton boll is sensitive as it nears harvesting.
• It is greatly affected by rise in day and night temperature.
• Cotton is sensitive to frost.
• It is also affected by leaf-curl virus and fruit shedding.

Geographical requirements – cotton:

Temperature:
• 25-35oC ideal temp. for cotton cultivation.
• Mild night temp. for better development of bolls.
• 25-35oC temp. with dry and sunny days for harvest.
Rainfall:
• about 1000mm of rainfall coming in frequent showers with sunny periods in between.
• If moisture less than 500mm, irrigation necessary.
• Rainfall at the time of picking spoils the bolls.
Soil:
• Medium loamy soil.
• Natural manure or chemical fertilizer needed.
Land should be leveled.
Human inputs:
• Agricultural machinery
• Automatic cotton picking machinery can be useful but in Pakistan, picking is done by
manual labor (mainly women).
• Pesticides and insecticides used against pests and insects.
• Irrigation
• Fertilizer

Varieties of cotton:
High yielding varieties: Nayyab 78, B-557, 147-F

Growing areas:
Punjab: Faisalabad
Sindh: badin, Nawabshah.

Sugarcane: a crop from which sugar, brown sugar and gurr are made.

Explain the process of cultivation of sugarcane.

• Sugarcane stalks, 30cm high are planted in April-May, keeping a distance of 30cm between
each stalk.
• The sugarcane crop is frequently irrigated and fertilizers are applied, especially potash.
• On a well-irrigated land, plants rise up to a height of 6-7 feet.
• The crop can be harvested/ratooned for 2-3 successive years.
What is meant by ratooning?
• After sugarcane is harvested, it sends up new shoots called ratoons.
• These ratoons are left to grow so that they can be harvested in the following year.
• Ratooning can continue for 2-3 successive years.

What happens to sugarcane from the time it is fully grown to when sugar juice is
extracted?
• Sugarcane is harvested manually and requires a lot of labor.
• The leaves at the top are cut away and stalks of sugarcane are tied into bundles.
• It is immediately transported by trucks or tractor-trollies to the nearest sugar mill.
• At sugar mill, the same is scrubbed with chalk to remove the smell and dirt.
• At the sugar mill, cane is cut into small pieces and crushed by rollers to extract the
juices.

Why do sugar mills have to be located near the sugarcane fields?

• Sugarcane starts losing its sugar contents as soon as it is harvested. It needs to be
crushed immediately.
• Sugarcane is bulky and heavy so it is expensive to transport.

What are the by-products of sugar industry and explain their uses.
• Bagasse: can be used as fuel in sugar mills. It is also used to make chipboard, paper,
and animal feed.
• Molasses: used to manufacture various types of acids in the chemical industry. It is
traditionally used as fuel in sugar industry.

Geographical requirements – sugarcane:

Temperature:
• 25-35oC
• it is tolerant to frost for a short period.
Rainfall:
• plenty of rainfall required – 1520mm.
• irrigation can bridge the gap/shortage.
Soil:
• loamy and clayey soil with silt.
• Sugarcane growth exhausts the soil so application of fertilizers containing nitrogen,
phosphorus, potash required.

Maize:
• Kharif crop.
• It is a food grain and raw material for edible oil products.
• Also used in manufacture of corn flour, custard powder.
• Also used as fodder for animals and as poultry feed.

Geographical requirements
Temperature:
 • High temp. required up to 35oC.
Rainfall:
• Between 50-500mm
Soil:
• Can grow on porous soil

Pulses:
• They are rich in proteins and popular in the local diet.
• They fix nitrogen in the soil, helping to fertilize the crop that follows.
• Little attention is paid to the crop as the returns are low.
• Mung, masoor, grams, mash are important pulses.

Geographical requirements:
Temperature:
• 30-35oC.
Rainfall:
• not much rain required/drought resistant.
Soil:
• can grow on poor, sandy soil

Millets:
• Are used as fodder for animals, poultry feed.
• Are also used as a food crop.
• Also used to make cereals.

Geographical requirements:
Temperature:
• 30-35oC.
rainfall:
• does not require much rainfall.
Soil:
• can be grown on poor, sandy soil.

Oilseeds:
• Like sunflower, soya bean, rape seed, mustard, sarson, rai, sesame, linseed and
castor seed.
• Are used to extract oil.
• Linseed and castor seed have industrial uses.

→ Production of oilseed is not sufficient to meet the needs of the growing population.
Therefore, 68% of edible oil is exported, while remaining 32% demand is met
locally.

Tobacco:
• Mainly grown in NWFP, which accounts for 65% of the total production. Main
growing areas are Mardan and Peshawar.
 Livestock farming
• Is one of the oldest and common professions in Pakistan.
• It is a system of inputs, outputs and processes.
• This type of farming can either be subsistence or commercial.

Subsistence livestock farming:

• In this, animals are reared, to be consumed by people who rear them.
• It is of three types.

1. Nomadic farming:
• Practiced in Balochistan and desert areas of Punjab and Sindh.
• People move from place to place in search of food and water
• If they find grazing ground or water source, they can settle down for weeks

2. Transhumance:
• is a system of livestock farming in which the animals are kept in pastures high up in
the mountains in summer and brought down to lower pastures in winter.
• This system is common in Northern mountains but is practiced in parts of Western
mountains.
• Goats, sheep and cattle are reared in this.

3. Settled livestock farming:

• Done at a fixed place.

Subsistence livestock farming vs commercial farming

Subsistence livestock farming Commercial farming

Inputs • Natural grazing fields for grazing • farms with animal sheds,
• Water from ponds and lakes ponds, fodder rooms
• Kept in open land (exposed to • processed fodder with
harsh weather) imp. nutrients
• Labor - women and children of the • specialized labor
family • veterinary facilities
• storage and processing
facilities for animal
products
Processes • natural breeding • natural breeding
• feeding (selective at times)
• milking • feeding
• manually shearing wool from • milking by suction
sheep machines
• extracting wool and hides
• preserving with
refrigeration facilities
• packing on some farms
 Outputs • milk • milk
• meat • meat
• wool etc • wool etc
• hides • hides
• eggs • eggs

What is the importance of livestock?

• Animals are used as draft power in farming process.
• Livestock is a source of food e.g. meat, milk etc.
• Livestock sector provides raw material to domestic industries as hides, wool, skins,
animal hair.
• Export associated with livestock in demand (share in exports 13%).
• GDP share of 10%.

What are the problems of the livestock sector?

• Few veterinary hospitals and facilities.
• Grazing unirrigated fields causes soil erosion.
• Lack of grazing grounds for cattle and sheep leads to over grazing.
• High prices of animal feed.
• Inefficient marketing system of milk and other products leads to less profit.
• Unhygienic conditions lead to unhealthy animals.

What developmental strategies could be adopted for livestock sector?

• Selective breeding and cross breeding for better quality animals.
• Programs to fatten cows for milk and meat.
• Control of diseases and better animal husbandry practices.
• Improvement in livestock research farms.
• Cultivation of fodder crops to turn agricultural lands into grazing fields.

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What are the factors affecting agricultural production? (natural and human)
Natural factors:
• Topography:
o Efficient farming can be done on larger and flatter land. Commercial farming
is done in the plains of Punjab and Sindh, on the account of vast, flat lands.
• Soil:
o Rich soil produces high farming output.
o Alluvial and loess (fine soil deposited by wind) are best suited for farming.
• Water, including rainfall:
o Water for irrigation can be had from rainfall, rivers or ground water. Water
needed according to the need of the crops.
• Temperature:
o Crops need proper temperature to grow in.
o Winter temperature suits Rabi, and summer temperature suits Kharif crops.
• Pests and diseases:
o Are likely to attack if preventive and curative measures are not taken. Such
attacks reduce agricultural output.
Human factors:
 • Irrigation facilities:
o If rain is not sufficient, farming can still be done with the help of irrigation.
o Pakistan has one of the largest networks of canal irrigation.
o However, our canals need rehabilitation. Unlining of canals causes wastage of
water.
o Other problems of canal irrigation are water logging and salinity.
• Fertilizers:
o Due to successive cultivation of crops, soil becomes deficient in certain
nutrients. Chemical fertilizers are needed to make up for the deficiency. The
application of fertilizers increases output.
• Mechanization:
o Introduction of tractors, fillers, combine harvesters, threshers and reapers,
and transplanters for rice has increased output and led to greater efficiency.
• High yielding varieties of seeds (HYVs):
o They have also increased output by 10-20%. HYVs are used on commercial
farms and their use is increasing.
→ Important HYVs: Wheat – Maxipak, rice – Irripak, sugarcane – JN, 88, cotton
– Nayyab 78.

Why are small farms uneconomical?

• Machinery cannot be used.
• Small, fragmented holdings are difficult to supervise.
• Irrigation is difficult on small farms.
• Loans cannot be obtained to develop small holdings.
• Experiments cannot be carried out to increase outputs.

Land Reforms:
• 3 major land reforms have been carried out (1959, 1972, 1977).
• In 1959, Ayub put limit on land holding, to 500 acres of irrigated, and 1000 acres of
unirrigated land per individual.
• In 1972, Bhutto reduced the land holding limit further to 250 acres of irrigated and
500 acres of unirrigated lands.
• In 1977, Bhutto further reduced the limit to 150 acres of irrigated and 300 acres of
unirrigated land.

What did land reforms aim to do?

• To redistribute land more fairly and equally by fixing a limit on individual land
holding.
• Land in excess to be divided among landless peasants.
• To increase land output.

What are the advantages of land consolidation?

• Land consolidation means that land belonging to one farmer should be located at
one place in compact block.
• Farmers use more energy and time on scattered land.
• These farmers can exchange or interchange holdings in a way to obtain larger
parcels at one place instead of fragmented pieces of land at several places.
• It helps:
o Lower the cost, increase productivity, make use of farm machinery possible,
resolve agricultural disputes among farmers.