Get the latest news and updates from Dawn
As the government prepares to present the FY27 budget, Pakistan’s agriculture sector is passing through one of its most difficult periods in recent history. A sharp rise in input costs, declining crop yields due to climate change and inadequate use of expensive fertilisers and pesticides, combined with depressed crop prices, mainly due to policy paralysis and a decrease in agri-exports — particularly after the closure of the Afghanistan border — have turned farming into a loss-making business.
Against this backdrop, uncertainty has reached such alarming levels that many now view agriculture — the backbone of the economy — as a risky gamble rather than a viable economic activity.
The roots of this crisis lie in a policy paradox. On the one hand, the government has moved to withdraw subsidies under the banner of deregulation and the International Monetary Fund framework. Input prices are left at the mercy of market forces — and often cartels and mafias. On the other hand, it seeks to suppress produce prices, directly or indirectly, through administrative measures or by influencing crop-processor associations in an effort to contain inflation and pre-empt social unrest.
