Reliable knowledge about the contribution of various factors
responsible for increasing agricultural production is indispensable for
planning. This holds particularly for the fertilizer use, which has been
recognized as one of the quickest and, perhaps, the cheapest means for
increasing agricultural produc¬tion. In Pakistan the emphasis on planned
development is gaining momentum and for this purpose more data and
fuller information on fertilizer response are becoming increasingly
essential. The Agricultural Research Stations in the country have been
conducting experiments with a view to determining the extent to which
the cropped yield may increase due to the application of fertilizer. But
such experiments, because of their somewhat controlled nature in respect
of certain factors, obviously can¬not tell us with a desired measure of
accuracy as to what is actually happening at millions of private farms
throughout the country. And, as such, the planning in this regard is apt
to be wrong.
