The report finds that about 80 percent of rental income comes from land rent, either in-kind or cash rent. Since land is distributed so unevenly in Pakistan most rental income goes to the rich. The report shows that the incomes of poor households fluctuate considerably. When ranked by income data, only one-third of the 145 households in the lowest quintile group in the first year of the study were in that quintile in both of the next two years. This means that most of the poverty found in this study is temporary rather than chronic in nature.
Households tend to move in and out of poverty for a variety of reasons.
Until ways can be found to distribute land more evenly in Pakistan, the report suggests that future policies need to be designed that recognize the dependence of the poor on sources of income outside the agriculture sector, such as nonfarm and livestock. For the poor to benefit more from nonfarm government employment, the government needs to increase educational opportunities for the poor. In the livestock sector, since local cows are such an important source of income for the poor, Pakistani policymakers should initiate programs to upgrade the productivity of local cows through cross-breeding schemes and veterinary programs. Since Pakistan has no comparative advantage in the production of this crop, sugarcane pricing policies need to be revised. At the same time, to improve equity, policymakers need to upgrade technologies for producing the main food crops, wheat and rice.