Pakistan's Agriculture has maintained an average annual growth rate of 4.4 percent during the last decade. Its economy has undergone alot of change over the years, yet the agriculture sector is still its back-bone while it serves as the base sector for the country's industries like textiles and sugar. The agriculture sector has shown a positive growth of 2.63 percent during the current year against a decline of 5. 28 percent during 1992-93. There are two main crop seasons Kharif and Rabi in Pakistan. Wheat, cotton, rice, barley, bajra, jowar, maize, gram, sugar cane, rapeseed, mustard, sesamum, oil seeds and tobacco fall in the category of major crops.
Wheat is the staple food of the people and thus occupies central position in farming policies.
Its share in total cropped area is around 37.1 percent. Output is estimated at 15,154 thousand tonnes per crop season. Rice is highly valued cash crop that earns substantial foreign exchange for the country. Despite the relative prices having favoured the highly yielding varieties, farmers traditionally grow Basmati. Basmati is confined to Punjab while other varieties are sown in all the provinces.