Pakistan Seed Sector Analysis - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

The per capita land availability in the country was around 0.22 ha in 2005, which reduced to 0.20 ha in 2015. As a result of population expansion and steady land degradation rate, the per capita land is expected to decrease, in the future. The decreasing per capita availability of arable land is a major concern for global agricultural production. However, it is considered to be a driver for the seed industry.

The need for producing more from the decreasing per capita arable land to get higher returns can be possible with the use of HYVs and hybrid varieties. This trend is encouraging farmers to shift their focus from conventional seed sources to packaged seeds that promise better returns.

The declining arable land trend in the country is encouraging corporations and farmers to pool their resources, for contract farming. The increasing contract farming practices help converge a large set of farmers to one point, for seed selection. This maintains a uniformity in the product, thus helping the seller to obtain sustainable demand and augmenting the bulk sale of seeds.

Onion and tomato are the most important vegetable crops, grown extensively in tropical and sub-tropical climates. As per the FAO statistics, around 49.5% of the overall vegetable acreage in the country is accounted for by Onion and Tomatoes, at 208.6 thousand hectares in 2018. Despite the several advantages of GM, not many GM varieties of vegetables are invented. Hence, R&D in GM vegetables and the marketing of it can be considered as opportunities to tap the market, along with product improvement. The vegetable seed sector of Pakistan is likely to become more attractive if explored for seed production facilities. The farmer and labor cost in these countries is cheaper than that in the developed countries. This implies an opportunity to increase profit realization by bringing down the cost of production.