THE IMPACT OF EDUCATION ON AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA PROVINCE OF PAKISTAN (1975-2008)

Agriculture is considered as the backbone of Pakistan’s economy and a reasonable proportion of population is engaged in it. The present study aims at finding the impact of education on production of wheat, sugarcane and tobacco crops in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) during the period 1975-2008. The econometric techniques Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Cointegration have been used for analysis. The estimation results obtained from OLS shows that education, fertilizers and area under cultivation are significant determinants of agricultural production in KPK. The results of cointegration confirmed the existence of long run relationship between education and agricultural production. It is therefore, suggested to adopt effective measures to increase school enrollment especially in rural areas of the study area. Furthermore, provision of high quality fertilizers and increase in area under cultivation can be helpful in enhancing the production of food and cash crops in the study area.