Brewing crisis of shrinking farm size

Pakistan’s agricultural crisis is generally framed around water scarcity, rising input costs, declining productivity and profitability and climate change. Yet another structural problem – the subdivision of agricultural land into smaller and scattered holdings – is worsening silently. Despite implications for farm efficiency, rural incomes and national poverty, the issue has received far less attention. The seventh Agricultural Census released in July has come up with figures that must ring alarm bells. The number of farms has increased from 8.26 million in 2010 to 11.10m in 2024 – a rise of…