Does Agriculture Play Any Role in Poverty Alleviation in Pakistan?
Abstract: The present study investigates the relationship between poverty and agriculture sector during 1990-2010 using variables GDP, rural poverty, fertilizers, tractors, improved seeds, water irrigation and agriculture credit. The main objective of this study is to see how agriculture effects and reduces poverty. The productivity of agriculture sector depends upon the agricultural inputs (fertilizers, seeds), irrigation system, and technology and agriculture credit. These inputs range from efficient provision of easy credit to the small farmer, availability of fertilizer, tractor and seeds, improvement in the effectiveness of the vast irrigation system, and finally farmer education. Furthermore, the high rate of population growth needs to be checked in order for the increased agricultural productivity to have any significant effect on poverty. Any effort to alleviate poverty in Pakistan needs a focused attention to this sector because of the bulk of the population attached to this sector and the reliance of other sectors on it through backward and forward linkages. The results indicate the importance of increasing the productivity of fertilizers, number of tractors, seeds and water irrigation system for overall decrease in poverty.
