Poverty Alleviation through diversifying towards high value crops in Pakistan
Journal Title: International Journal of Business Management and Economic Research - Year 2010, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
Pakistan is a country of about 163.76 million people. More than 68 percent of Pakistan's population lives in rural areas where the main occupation is agriculture. It is the source of the livelihood of almost 44.7 percent of the total employed labor force in the country. With the present contribution to GDP at 21.8 percent, agriculture sector is the mainstay of the rural economy around which socio-economic privileges and deprivation revolve. Diversification towards high value and labor intensive crops can provide adequate income and employment to the farmers. Crop diversification towards high value crops indicates that greater attention must be devoted to this avenue for rural income growth and offer an opportunity to augment income, generate employment opportunities, empower women farmers, and alleviate poverty. The government of Pakistan should take several initiatives for agricultural development in general and crop diversification in particular. These initiatives are to launch a technology mission for the integrated development of horticulture in Pakistan, infrastructure support for horticultural development with emphasis on post-harvest management, strengthening agricultural marketing, mandatory Crop Loan Insurance and Seed Bank Scheme will lead to crop diversification and increase the production, productivity of crops and increase the income of farmers.
Authors and Affiliations
Asif Ali Abro , Mahapara Sadaqat
Keywords
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- EP ID EP118902
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Poverty Alleviation through diversifying towards high value crops in Pakistan
Pakistan is a country of about 163.76 million people. More than 68 percent of Pakistan's population lives in rural areas where the main occupation is agriculture. It is the source of the livelihood of almost 44.7 pe...