Growth of Crop Output in Pakistan—An Analysis by Component Elements

An assessment of production possibilities in the agricultural sector is an important aspect of the process of making projections of agricultural output. A knowledge of the determinants of production or of sources of growth as observed in the recent past is a useful starting point in delineating the production possibilities. Locating sources of growth in agriculture is normally interpreted as an exercise in determining dimensions of the input-output relationship in crop production processes. There are mainly two approaches for analysing the issue: (a) Estimation of the production functions and (b) Disaggregation of the “gross value of production” (GVP) into its main components. This paper presents some results on sources of growth at the disaggregated district level by breaking down the increase in the gross value of production into four factors. The first section consists of the methodology and data used. Main results are presented in the second section. The last section derives some implications for research in this area.