An emerging binding constraint

The growth of the agriculture sector largely depends on crop yield improvements, which are influenced by several factors. Among these, the nationwide availability of, and farmers’ access to high-yielding, climate-resilient seeds stands out as the most critical determinant of yield, assuming all other conditions remain constant. History bears this out. The real driving force behind the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was the breakthrough in high-yielding crop varieties — most notably the semi-dwarf wheat bred by Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug (introduced in Pakistan as Mexi-Pak) and the International Rice Research Institute rice varieties.