KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

The province has an agrarian economy where four-fifth (80%) of the population resides in rural areas having agriculture as their main source of livelihood. The share of agriculture in the provincial Gross Domestic Product is 22% whereas it provides 44% of employment of the total labor force. However, 5.8% of the provincial population continues to be moderate and swear food insecure with high rate of malnourishment, whereas this was reported higher as 27.1 and 12.1% in the KP. KP farmland is small and people depend on the available land for their basic food needs. An area of 1.245 million hectares lays barren because of water shortage and has been termed as culturable wasteland.

The province has an agrarian economy where four-fifth (80%) of the population resides in rural areas having agriculture as their main source of livelihood. The share of agriculture in the provincial Gross Domestic Product is 22% whereas it provides 44% of employment of the total labor force. However, 5.8% of the provincial population continues to be moderate and swear food insecure with high rate of malnourishment, whereas this was reported higher as 27.1 and 12.1% in the KP. KP farmland is small and people depend on the available land for their basic food needs. An area of 1.245 million hectares lays barren because of water shortage and has been termed as culturable wasteland.

Out of 34 districts in the province, 19 districts are rain fed while the remaining irrigated districts also have major tracts of land that depend on rainfall for agriculture. The agriculture sector has both forward and backward linkages with almost all other sectors that is acts as engine of growth for the rest of the country.

More importantly, the crop water productivity has been lowest than its potential because almost 50 percent agricultural lands of KP are rain fed; the main limiting factor being water. The project NPIWC-II aims to increase crop intensity by improving watercourses, constructing water storage tanks and provision of laser land levelers.

For further details regarding NPIWC-II in the province, kindly visit On-Farm Water Management Directorate General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa portal below.

OFWM Directorate General Agriculture

COMPONENTS	TARGETS
Improvement of WC (20 years old+ Additional lining	3,000
New watercourses	10,000
Total watercourses	13,000
Water storage tanks	5,000
Laser land leveler	600