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Findings of the agricultural census

42 1
10.09.2025

The findings of the Agricultural Census of 2024 have been released recently by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). This was also a digital census. It has come after a gap of 14 years, as the last Agricultural Census was conducted in 2010.

According to the Census, there were 11.7 million private farms in Pakistan in 2024. The corresponding number was 8.3 million in 2010. Therefore, the annual growth rate in the number of farms since 2010 has been 2.5 percent. This is significantly higher than the rate of increase in the number of households in the rural areas of Pakistan of approximately 2 percent. Therefore, contrary to expectations, the rural economy is now more dependent on agriculture.

The increase in total farm area is estimated at only 0.8 percent on average annually. It was estimated at 59.3 million acres in 2024, compared to 52.9 million acres in 2010. Consequently, the average farm size has contracted significantly from 6.4 acres to 5.1 acres. This is a clear indicator of the increased population pressure on farm land.

However, the positive development is the more intensive utilization of farm area, with an increase in the share of cultivated area. The share of cultivated area in farm area has gone up from 80.6 percent to 89 percent. The issue is access to water of the higher cultivated area. The Census reports that the share of barani area is over 9 percent. Therefore, it is likely that some of the additional cultivated area is rainfed and not with access to........

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