The agriculture sector in Pakistan is experiencing excessive land fragmentation because of prevailing inheritance laws that divide land among family members over successive generations. Simultaneously, the expansion of housing colonies on the periphery of urban centres continues to eat up agricultural land.
Since Pakistan’s cultivable land has remained steady at around 22-23 million hectares over the past two decades, the result of the previous elements has been the shrinkage of farm sizes.
In 1971, the average farm size was 5.3 hectares, which reduced to 3.1 hectares by 2000, and further to 2.6 hectares in 2010, according to the Agricultural Census. However, this average farm size can be misleading, as the largest four per cent of farms — those exceeding 25 acres — inflate the overall average significantly. In reality, over 90pc of farms span less than 5 hectares (12 acres), with 67pc of them being even smaller, at less than 2 hectares (5 acres).
As farm sizes continue to decrease, farmers’ access to resources and essential services, such as credit and extension, diminishes. In the coming years, it appears the agriculture sector will be overwhelmingly dominated by subsistence and small farms, characterised by low productivity, limited market access, weak bargaining power, and higher transaction costs. The situation calls for a policy response that could either prevent further land fragmentation or mitigate its adverse effects.
Land fragmentation ails the agriculture sector as over 90pc of farms span less than five hectares, becoming economically unviable with low productivity and market reach
Worldwide, many countries have enacted laws to prevent land fragmentation, ensuring that farms do not divide below a certain minimum size. These laws focus on maintaining economically........