DOES AGRICULTURE SECTOR HAVE MOMENTOUS EFFECT ON PAKISTAN'S ECONOMIC GROWTH? AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION FROM 1972-2016

Agriculture sector prolong to play a vital role in economic growth, development, build-in infrastructure, industrial fabricate up, reduction in poverty, providing employment opportunities, foreign trade, balance of payment and stabilizing the economy of Pakistan. This study applied ARDL model, ARDL Co-integration and Long form co-efficient, Johansen Co integration and Bound testing approach as analytical techniques to empirically investigate the effect and role of agriculture sector in Pakistan's economic growth from 1972-2016. The study found co-integration between contribution of agri-sector, exports of agri-sector and trade balance of agrisector with Pakistan's economic growth. Further, the study also found short run relation among agriculture sector contribution, exports and economic growth of Pakistan. The stability and diagnostic test were also applied and their results showed reliability and goodness of fit of the model. This study recommends that as a great proportion of Pakistan's population is directly or indirectly associated with agriculture sector production and earnings, the utmost desire to enhance economic growth of conventional economy like Pakistan is to modernize and transform agriculture sector to international stratum.