8.26m private farms cover 52.91m acres: 2010 census

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LAHORE: A total of 8.26 million private farms exist in the country, covering 52.91 million acres, according to agricultural census carried out in 2010 by the Federal Statistics Division.

Daily Times obtained a copy of the latest agricultural census, which is yet to be officially announced. According to the census, 8.36 million people privately own 55.6 million acres in the country. Thus, the total agricultural land owned by people is 2.69 million acres more than the total lands under private farming. A private farm means an agricultural Continue reading →

Seeds of census

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The area of the agricultural land, owned by 19,271 big landlords in the country, is almost equal to the area held by 5.6 million poor farmers, as per the data provided by the Agricultural Census 2010 conducted by the Federal Statistics Division. In the following analysis, the landowners have been categorised as ‘big landlords’ (owning 150 acres and above), ‘rich farmers’ (owning from 50 acres up to less than 150 acres), ‘middle farmers’ (owning from 12.5 acres up to less than 50 acres), ‘small farmers’ (owning from 5 acres to less than 12.5 acres)and ‘poor farmers’  Continue reading →

80pc of farmers own 28pc of land

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LAHORE, May 29: UP to 80 per cent of the people in the country’s farming sector own only 28 per cent of the privately-owned agricultural land (55.60 million acres), according to the 2010 agricultural census carried out by the Federal Statistics Division.

Against this, big land lords and rich farmers combined, with ownership of more than 50 acres, number only a little more than 100,000 (113,750 to be exact) and make up only 1.44 percent of the land-owning population, but their share in Continue reading →

A lordly affair

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The phenomenal rise of the middle class in central and north Punjab since the 1980s has dealt a severe blow to the dominance of feudal lords over the Punjab politics. The creation of two separate provinces — Bahawalpur and South Punjab — will likely prove to be a lease of life for the feudal class and these regions would be their enclaves.

The southern districts have a dominant agrarian economy and large land holdings where tribal chiefs, feudal lords and Pirs (big landlords cum so-called spiritual leaders) rule the roost. Continue reading →

Punjab into three?

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The division of Punjab, which seemed to be a distant dream until recently, is now almost a reality as all political parties have stamped their approval on the idea. It’s only a matter of time now. Both PPP and PML-N have made adjustments in their original stance vis-à-vis the issue. PPP, which was initially rooting for a Seraiki province, or Seraikistan, has accepted PML-N’s demand for two provinces — one comprising the formerly State of Bahawalpur and the other South Punjab. PML-N, which was initially reluctant to accept the demand Continue reading →