Agriculture is considered the backbone of Pakistan's economy, which relies heavily on its major crops. There are vast gaps between the acquired and actual output of produce, which suffers due to a lack of appropriate technology, use of inputs at improper times, unavailability of water and land use and inadequate education about insect pest control, which not only negatively affects the produce but also significantly reduces the amount of produce. Farmers mainly use synthetic chemicals for the control of insect pests, but these are used unwisely. To emphasize the major shortfalls and actual performance of major field crops, this study investigated the relationship between agricultural GDP and the output of major crops, including wheat, rice, sugarcane, maize and cotton, in Pakistan over a period of 65 years from 1950 to 2015. Time series data were collected from the Economic Survey of Pakistan (various publications). Crop data were analysed using the ordinary least square method and the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test, and the results were interpreted using Johansen's co-integration test. Our study finds that the output of wheat, rice and cotton has a positive and significant relationship with the agricultural GDP of Pakistan, while the output of sugarcane has a negative and non-significant relationship with the agricultural GDP of Pakistan. Therefore, this study recommends that the government of Pakistan should launch new funding programmes for the development of the agricultural sector.

Economic perspectives of major field crops of Pakistan: An empirical study

The effects of amending soil with organic (poultry manure) and inorganic fertilizer on yield and chlorophyll content of maize (Zea mays L.) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolour (L) Moench) was carried out at the Teaching and Research (TR was highest under control plots in both crops.  The implication of CSI% on drought tolerance of maize and sorghum was discussed.

EFFECT OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC FERTILIZER ON YIELD AND CHLOROPHYLL CONTENT OF MAIZE (Zea mays (L.) AND SORGHUM Sorghum bicolour (L) Moench)

Effect of N fertilizer source and timing on yield and N use efficiency of rainfed maize (Zea mays L.) in Kashmir–Pakistan

Optimized nitrogen application methods to improve nitrogen use efficiency and nodule nitrogen fixation in a maize-soybean relay intercropping system

Impact of Nitrogen Rate on Maize Yield and Nitrogen Use Efficiencies in Northeast China

Yield and Nitrogen Use Efficiency of Rainfed Maize Response to Splitting and Nitrogen Rates in Kashmir, Pakistan

. The optimization of plant nutrients and irrigation regimes hold potential to boost maize growth, cob yield, herbage biomass and revenue generation of maize. A field study was conducted to optimize irrigation and fertilization management for dual-purpose maize. The experiment was comprised four irrigation regimes viz. no irrigation (I 0 ), one irrigation 20 days after sowing (DAS) (I 1 ), two irrigations 20 and 40 DAS (I 2 ), and three irrigations 20, 40 and 60 DAS (I 3 ). The fertilization regimes included a treatment with recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) (275-125-80-125-8 kg ha -1 of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, gypsum and sulfur) (F 1 ), poultry manure (PM) (5 t ha -1 ) (F 2 ), 75% RDF + PM (2.5 t ha -1 ) (F 3 ), and 50% RDF + PM (5 t ha -1 ) (F 4 ). Combination of I 3 and F 3 outperformed other treatment combinations in terms of most of the yield attributes such as plant height (177.72 cm), cob length with (8.36 cm) and without husk (1.62 cm), and cob (without husk) yield (3.86 t ha -1 ). This treatment combination also produced maize with the highest protein content of leaves and cobs. However, the highest green herbage yield (29.99 t ha -1 ) was recorded with I 1 ×F 1 , which remained at par with I 1 ×F 3 . It took 20 additional days for crop switching from fodder harvest to attain baby corn maturity. The economic analysis revealed that I 3 ×F 3 treatment combination generated the greatest economic revenue.

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Mussawar Iqbal

Papers

Yield and Nitrogen Use Efficiency of Rainfed Maize Response to Splitting and Nitrogen Rates in Kashmir, Pakistan

Cob yield, nutritional quality and herbage productivity of baby corn as influenced by irrigation and integrated nutrient fertilization