Agriculture Sector Employment and the Need for Off-Farm Employment in the North-West Frontier Province

Abstract

The North-West Frontier Province is essentially a mountainous region intermixed with fertile valleys of agricultural lands. The diversity of the region is well reflected through the agro-ecological regions map of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Councile where 6 out of the 10 regions indentified are .found in the NWFP. The total population of the NWFP stood at 11.1 million persons in 1981 with an annual growth rate higher than the national average (3.32 percent as against 3.1 percent for Pakistan). Moreover, the literacy rate is abysmally low, standing as it d~es at about 16.7 percent (which according to some is an optimistic estimate). The inflow of over 3.5 million Afghan refugees and the location of more than three-fourths of this number in the NWFP has compounded the problems with far reaching implications for the economy, environment and the level of off-farm employment. The influx of these refugees with their herds and beasts of burden have tended to encroach on forest lands and led to over-grazing of pastures resulting in environmental degradation. The rapidly mUltiplying demand for food has led to crops being grown on steep and unstable slopes.