FAO.org

Pakistan has enormous potential in agriculture, yet in the past three decades most subsectors of agriculture have remained static or declined. A new working paper entitled “Pakistan: Priority areas for investment in agriculture” has recently been published by FAO’s Investment Centre in collaboration with the World Bank, identifying key areas that require priority intervention within Pakistan’s agricultural sector. The four priority areas, which came out of the International Roundtable on Agriculture and Water Resources Management inIslamabad, are agriculture research and extension, rural finance, the seed sector, and water resources. Within the water resources sector great attention is being paid to participatory irrigation management and irrigation management transfer, drawing from case studies in six countries to analyze the best way to improve and maximize water resources, cost and sustainability by allowing water users to be actively involved in, and in some instances manage, irrigation systems.

Turi Fileccia, Senior Economist in the Investment Centre and co-author of the report, explains that the report “outlines possible lending priority areas which have been identified with our assistance and with the concurrence of major stakeholders. With the current country partnership strategy (CPS) ofPakistancoming to an end, the challenge for us all will be to ensure that as many of these will form part of the futureCPSbetween the World Bank and the Government of Pakistan.”

Agriculture is responsible for 24 percent ofPakistan’sGDPand employs 47 percent of the labor force. Within each subsector highlighted by the publication, a number of specific interventions and rationales are outlined so that the challenges of rural poverty, export growth and national development can be addressed.

For the full report, please click here: