ISLAMABAD: Leading agriculture experts Saturday strongly recommended that there is an urgent need to engage rural youth in agricultural productive activities after imposition of Agri tax from January 2025. Taking to media at the National Press Club here on Saturday, Khan Faraz, an agro expert informed that with limited income opportunities from farming, many are at risk of drifting towards illegal or unproductive paths. Therefore, policymakers must address this growing aspiration gap as Pakistan is an agricultural country. Agriculture is the mainstay of the country’s economy. Agriculture contributes around 23 percent to the GDP and employs 33.4 percent of the country’s labour. About 70 percent of the country’s exports are directly or indirectly derived from agriculture. Khan Faraz said they low landholding has emerged as a major challenge in the rural regions of Pakistan. In 1990, the average landholding in the country was approximately five hectares (12.4 acres). Today, that figure has shrunk to around three hectares (7.4 acres). This decline is compounded by significant land inequality. While a few large landlords control the majority of the land, many smallholders now own less than one hectare. For rural populations heavily reliant on agriculture, high fertility rates and the division of family land among heirs have led to increasingly smaller farm sizes, leaving many families in economic distress as alternative…