ABSTRACT
Pakistan has a central statistical system similar to India, although agriculture is essentially treated as an independent entity. The Central Statistical Office (CSO), under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, was formally initiated in 1950 to design and oversee statistical collection throughout Pakistan. Four initial divisions, the Trade Division, the Industry and Labor Division, the Price Division, and the Social Statistics Division, were initially formed within CSO, but the organization has been revamped from time to time and additional divisions appended. However, divisions for the collection of agricultural and food statistics were not formed. Instead, this work was delegated to a special statistical division within the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Cooperative Planning (MFACP). The MFACP is responsible for the collection, aggregation, and publication of basic land use and area, production, and yield statistics. In addition, a statistical cell within the Food Commission collects foodgrain prices at all levels of the marketing chain throughout Pakistan as well as data for government purchases of foodgrains, imports, exports, stocks, etc. Land-use statistics, represented in the table by "total area cultivated," are available in various forms since 1947/48. (Pakistan statistics are reported in years running from July 1-June 20.) A complete series for land use is not available because a few remote areas of Baluchistan and the tribal areas remain unsurveyed. However, these areas are largely uncultivated.
