Page 21 - 2010 (3) Agricultural Census 2010, Punjab Report

INTRODUCTION

Agriculture is an extremely important sector of Pakistan's economy. lt plays a vital
role and lays down the foundation for economic development and growth in this
country. Agriculture contributes more than 21 per cent to the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) and provides employment to 45 per cent of the total labour force of
the country. lt provides raw material to the industrial sector on one side and is a
market of industrial products on the other side. In the export earnings, direct as well
as indirect share of agriculture is very high. Thus, it is prudent to construe that
agriculture plays a multidimensional role in the economy of pakistan.

Almost 64 % of the population of Pakistan resides in rural areas and earns its
livelihood, directly or indirectly, from agricultural activities e.g. crop cultivation,
livestock rearing, labour in agriculture, agriculture input supply, transportation of
agricultural output to the market etc. Therefore, development of agriculture is
synonymous to the development of the country. The availability of timely, accurate
and reliable data is precondition for sound agricultural planning and development.
The data from ihe Agricultural Census thgs provide a concrete basis from which the
agriculture sector can ultimately deVelop through evidence-based policy
designing.The Agricultural Census Organization (ACO) has conducted five
Agricultural Censuses in Pakistan: 1960, 1972, 1980, 1990 and 2000. The present
report is the sixth one in the series. The Agricultural Census 2010 was undertaken to
fulfil the following objectives:

OBJECTIVES

To generate basic information on the structure of agriculture.
1

2 To develop detailed basic information about the agricultural resources, state of
their utilization and to find out the degree of acceptability of modern farming
practices among the farming community for the purpose of regional, provincial
and national development, planning and research in the field of agriculiure.

To coilect information about livestock population.

4. To fulfil data neecjs of the international agencies iike FAO which require the
country's information for a worldwide stuCy of agricultural resources in order to
formulate international policies in matters relating to the supply of food and raw
materials on sustainable basis.

LFGAL BASIS

The defunct (novv) Agricultural CensusAct, 1958 ( ActNo.XLl of 1958 ) provided the
legal basis for census operations through out ihe country. The Act made it binding on
ihe Government of Pakistan forthe collection of agricultural data and also on the
respondents to cooperate with the census enumerators and to furnish infornration on
or u;ith respect to itenrs specified in the said Act. At the same time, the Act assured
the secrecy of the information supplied by the responcients. lt also bound the
interviewer and interviewee not to declare or use this information for anv leqa!
pi'oceedings.

xul