Pakistan’s agri yields are in the dumps, and we’ll need a lot of things to go right to reverse them

The bosses over at Engro Fertilisers have made some changes to their sale strategy. The decision would have been taken at the company’s corporate offices in Karachi, but the implementation is supposed to take place far away in farms all over Pakistan. 

You see Engro has split their sales team into two. The first team will continue to sell conventional fertilisers used in Pakistan for decades. The second team will be focused on selling specialty fertilisers, which focuses on balanced nutrition and balanced fertilisation. 

For a very long time now Pakistan’s fertiliser industry has been dominated by urea and DAP. Urea constitutes around 69% of the total market share for fertilisers in Pakistan, DAP makes up about 13% of the consumption, and the remaining 18% is split between phosphates, nitrates, and other specialised products. 

The split of product consumption is telling. Pakistan’s agriculture has long suffered from apathy, lack of research, and an attitude that preferes generalised solutions to specific problems. Fertilisers and their application are just one part of the problem. Contributing to approximately a quarter of the nation’s GDP and giving employment to over 90 lakh people, the agriculture sector faces a perennial problem of low yields and uncompetitive farm practices. And while the introduction of new fertiliser products from the private sector is beneficial, it is only scratching the surface of much larger issues such as the lack of farm mechanisation and modern farming techniques. 

But how will these changes affect the fertiliser sector in Pakistan? Will it bolster competition or meet resistance from farming communities that are often stuck in their ways? And most importantly, what more is there to be done?