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_: Pakistan is the 4th largest producer of rice following China, India, Indonesia. Rice is the major export product of Pakistan following wheat, cotton. It export earns about 13 percent of the country's foreign exchange making it the second most important source of foreign exchange following cotton. Total share of Pakistan in world's trade of rice is up to 10 percent while 25 percent in world's trade of basmati rice.
Basmati rice covers 52 percent of the total cultivated area of rice in Pakistan. Generally in Pakistan rice production system is followed by rice-wheat production system means both are grown in a alternate pattern, as rice are grown in the monsoon months and wheat in the cooler months of winter season, in the province name Punjab there is sufficient water available to grow rice in the kharif season (summer) as per the requirement of rice while wheat is grown in the rabi (winter) months from November to April.
Rice is cultivated over 10 percent of total cropped area of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It is contributing approximately 6.7 percent in value-addition of agriculture and the contribution of rice in GDP is about 1.3-1.6 percent in total GDP.
The production of rice in Pakistan by the different provinces indicates that Punjab ranks first by contributing 58 percent, Sindh ranks second by contributing 29 percent, Balochistan ranks third and its contribution is about 3 percent and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ranks fourth by contributing 10 percent.
Zulfikar Thaver, President Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) while sharing an overviav of the cash crop of the country said in an interview that the total production of rice in Pakistan estimated around...