Why does Pakistan import so much food?

[Gilljutt]

Pakistan controls 4 times more of Punjab than India. It has a major river that runs the length of the country, yet it imports much more food as a percentage of merchandise imports than India. Shouldn't controlling Punjab make Pakistan a food producing powerhouse? Why is this?

Pakistan - 15%
India - 4%

Sources:

Pakistan - Food Imports (% Of Merchandise Imports) - 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1962-2023 Historical

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in Pakistan was reported at 16.11 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Pakistan - Food imports (% of merchandise imports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and...

tradingeconomics.com

India - Food Imports (% Of Merchandise Imports) - 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1962-2023 Historical

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in India was reported at 4.6991 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. India - Food imports (% of merchandise imports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and...

tradingeconomics.com

 

[Maula Jatt]

horrendous agriculture policies - that's mostly it

 

[313ghazi]

Pakistan controls 4 times more of Punjab than India. It has a major river that runs the length of the country, yet it imports much more food as a percentage of merchandise imports than India. Shouldn't controlling Punjab make Pakistan a food producing powerhouse? Why is this?

Pakistan - 15%
India - 4%

Sources:

Pakistan - Food Imports (% Of Merchandise Imports) - 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1962-2023 Historical

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in Pakistan was reported at 16.11 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Pakistan - Food imports (% of merchandise imports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and...

tradingeconomics.com

India - Food Imports (% Of Merchandise Imports) - 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1962-2023 Historical

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in India was reported at 4.6991 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. India - Food imports (% of merchandise imports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and...

tradingeconomics.com

100% correct. We have a shit agricultural setup.

1. No land reforms, large swathes of land owned by the elite with the purpose of controlling people not farming.

2. Water wastage. We waste water at every turn and then blame Indian dams for shortages. In the UK out taps are aerated. It means the water that comes out is a slowed down mixture of air and water. In Punjab they 200mm pipes in thier tubewells pumping water into irrigation channels flooding the lands. We don't preserve rainwater and during monsoons and winter rains flash floods are a common sight.

3. Archaic farming techniques and lack of commercial farming.

 

[Goenitz]

yield, storage, mismanagement (like importing/exporting sugar), hoardings, smuggling, etc,
To me the most important thing is yield which is lower than India and way lower than China. Mismanagement like everyone produces potatoes, which plummet the price. Farmers should be given directions what to grow where. Smuggling occurs like of flour. Storage issue like making long life milk. Processing, such as only gilgit is the world's 6th largest producers of apricots, but still we import apricots from Iran/Turkey as we don't dry our own.

Plus your data may include, chocolate, biscuits, edible oil, tea etc which are expensive.

 

[Hyde]

Pakistan controls 4 times more of Punjab than India. It has a major river that runs the length of the country, yet it imports much more food as a percentage of merchandise imports than India. Shouldn't controlling Punjab make Pakistan a food producing powerhouse? Why is this?

Pakistan - 15%
India - 4%

Sources:

Pakistan - Food Imports (% Of Merchandise Imports) - 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1962-2023 Historical

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in Pakistan was reported at 16.11 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Pakistan - Food imports (% of merchandise imports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and...

tradingeconomics.com

India - Food Imports (% Of Merchandise Imports) - 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1962-2023 Historical

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in India was reported at 4.6991 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. India - Food imports (% of merchandise imports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and...

tradingeconomics.com

We don’t have long term storage solutions so for example we will export wheat and later import at higher prices

Punjab is doing great in agriculture but things could improve with modern technology and innovation. Farmers are unwilling to take risks so they continue to yield the same crop as they have been doing for generations

 

[Ahmet Pasha]

We aren't even using genetics to figure out what crop will be best.

 

[Clutch]

Pakistan controls 4 times more of Punjab than India. It has a major river that runs the length of the country, yet it imports much more food as a percentage of merchandise imports than India. Shouldn't controlling Punjab make Pakistan a food producing powerhouse? Why is this?

Pakistan - 15%
India - 4%

Sources:

Pakistan - Food Imports (% Of Merchandise Imports) - 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1962-2023 Historical

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in Pakistan was reported at 16.11 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Pakistan - Food imports (% of merchandise imports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and...

tradingeconomics.com

India - Food Imports (% Of Merchandise Imports) - 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1962-2023 Historical

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in India was reported at 4.6991 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. India - Food imports (% of merchandise imports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and...

tradingeconomics.com

Because we love Zinger Burger over desi daal roti.

 

[xyxmt]

Because Pakistani people in general are getting kam chore as time passes, in every walk of life....everyone want to become a property dealer even in villages where there is a lot of room for haram khori and land grabbing. I don't see an upside for Pakistan...before you all get upset, I am talking like this from my personal experience recently, In a village where people used to grow crops if not more than at least for their own use but now I see barren land, huge trees 100s of years old cut down and sold.....yes I met lots of property dealers who want to buy or sell your land with lots of lies and cheating.

 

[fallstuff]

Bangladesh food import is like 16% of all imports. This comes to about $10-11 billion a year.
So Pakistan imports are not bad.

Bangladesh Food imports, 1960-2023 - knoema.com

In 2015, food imports for Bangladesh was 16.6 %. Though Bangladesh food imports fluctuated substantially in recent years, it tended to increase through 1993 - 2015 period ending at 16.6 % in 2015. Food comprises the commodities in SITC sections 0 (food and live animals), 1 (beverages and...

knoema.com

Prosperity Data360

Prosperity Data360 is an open data initiative of the World Bank dedicated to streamlining access to and promoting the use of development data. The Prosperity Data360 platform offers a wealth of data, resources, and tools to inform policy measures that foster inclusive and sustainable growth. In...

tcdata360.worldbank.org

 

[Paitoo]

I don't think this metric is the correct one to compare. May be India's merchandise import mix is very different.
What is more relevant is food imports as % of total consumption of food products. That is the measure of self sufficiency. Anyone has statistics on that?

 

[Meliodas]

Pakistan controls 4 times more of Punjab than India. It has a major river that runs the length of the country, yet it imports much more food as a percentage of merchandise imports than India. Shouldn't controlling Punjab make Pakistan a food producing powerhouse? Why is this?

Pakistan - 15%
India - 4%

Sources:

Pakistan - Food Imports (% Of Merchandise Imports) - 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1962-2023 Historical

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in Pakistan was reported at 16.11 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Pakistan - Food imports (% of merchandise imports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and...

tradingeconomics.com

India - Food Imports (% Of Merchandise Imports) - 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1962-2023 Historical

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in India was reported at 4.6991 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. India - Food imports (% of merchandise imports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and...

tradingeconomics.com

You know that imports are counted in $and not quantity and when $goes up imports go up. Also alot of this is because of unnecessary cravings of the wealthy. How is Punjab a standard of food production? Pakistans Punjab contains significant area thats barren also part of india's is initial Punjab is now a another full state.

 

[omegalamba7XL9]

Pakistan controls 4 times more of Punjab than India. It has a major river that runs the length of the country, yet it imports much more food as a percentage of merchandise imports than India. Shouldn't controlling Punjab make Pakistan a food producing powerhouse? Why is this?

Pakistan - 15%
India - 4%

Sources:

Pakistan - Food Imports (% Of Merchandise Imports) - 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1962-2023 Historical

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in Pakistan was reported at 16.11 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Pakistan - Food imports (% of merchandise imports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and...

tradingeconomics.com

India - Food Imports (% Of Merchandise Imports) - 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1962-2023 Historical

Food imports (% of merchandise imports) in India was reported at 4.6991 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. India - Food imports (% of merchandise imports) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and...

tradingeconomics.com

Unfortunately we don't recognize our agricultural strength. If right regulations and proper distribution is ensured we can become agricultural powerhouse.
If we pay attention to our agricultural

 

[FuturePAF]

Cartels, corruption, and brain drain of entrepreneurs and top talent

we should break the cartels the way Japan did, and we can see the country catch up the region and then use its geopolitical position to pass it, just like Japan did.