pakistan geographical review 1954 - University of the Punjab

13
Jute is a regulated crop. Due to decrease in exports to India, the
principal buyer, the acreage under jute has decreased from 2,058 thousand acres
in 1947-48 to 1,250 thousand acres in 1950-51, and 760 thousand acres in 1903-54
and the yield from 68,42,605 bales m 1947-48 to 4,452,000 bales in 1950-51 and
250,3000 bales in 1953-54.
The area under rice has during the same period increased from 19,006,400
acres in 1947-48 to 20,007,000 acres in 1950-51 and 24,533,000 acres in 1953-54
and the yield from 6,736,200 tons to 7,343,000 tons 91,51,000 tons in 1953-54.
This makes the province quite self-sufficient in food as its normal requirements
are estimated
at 72 lack tons.
Tea is another important crop of East Pakistan which is not produced in
West Pakistan at all. In 1950-51, it covered an area of 75,000 acres and the
production was 37,856,000 lb=. while in 1953-54 the production was estimated at
53 million lbs. By international agreement its acreage has been fixed at 83,700
acres. The hot wet and humid climate of the Sylhet district in the well-drained
sub-montane of the heavily forested Assam Hills, with excellent deep soils rich
in burnous and iron are very favourable for tea. The slope is sufficient to
give good drainage. Tea gardens are found not only on low hillocks or tilae
but have also been extended to reclaimed marshlands though the product of the
latter is comparat ively inferior. The pre-Monsoon or early summer rains, often
associated with Norwesters, promote the growth of new leaves. To a small
extent tea is also grown in Chittagong on the low hills unfit for rice cultivation.
Besides these East Pakistan produces almost all the Pakistan's linseed
and summer Til. It has an area of about 265,000 acres under betel-nut with
an annual production of 9,700 tons. Rape and mustard, sugarcane and tobacco
are the crops which are common to both East and West Pakistan, the first two
being comparatively more important in West Pakistan and the third in East
Pakistan.
Taking the two wings together Pakistan has a small surplus in food crops.
There is an explortable surplus of about 300,000 tons of wheat and 150 to 200
tons of rice. Of the cash crops in 1950-51 there was a surplus of over 12 lakh
bales of cotton and 5 million bales of Jute and 30 million lbs. of tea. These
figures show that agriculturally Pakistan is a prosperous country and that this
prosperity comes from the balance maintained in production in between the
two wings.