A SYMBIOTIC ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HUMAN CAPITAL AND AGRICULTURAL GROWTH IN PAKISTAN; ASSESSMENT THROUGH AUTO REGRESSIVE DISTRIBUTED LAG MODEL

The agriculture sector executes a crucial role in the economy of Pakistan and considered a robust factor against food scarcity. This sector has a sound contribution to gross domestic products (GDP), and also consistently sustains the economy of developing countries. As per the increasing demand for agriculture production, it is crucial to strengthen the degree of human capital in the agricultural population. Human capital is a force so-called collective knowledge, and constructing the human resources in the long-term, which is particularly valid for the agricultural sector. We determined the bridge between the agricultural sector growth and all relevant factors such as human capital, employed labor force, agricultural land, tractors, water availability and agricultural credit. The principal component analysis (PCA) is used for the human capital index. We employed the PCA to make the human capital index by taking infant mortality rate (IMF), secondary school enrollment (SEC) and life expectancy (LE). We employed augmented dickey-fuller and Phillips-Perron unit root tests to inspect the station-arity of the variables. Besides, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing method was also done to co-integrate the causal relationship among study variables as a shred of evidence from the long run and short-run analysis. Long-run results revealed that the human capital index, cm-ployed labor force, agricultural land, tractors, water availability, and agricultural credit have a significant association with agricultural growth. After all, the long-run effects are stronger than the short-run dynamics concerning the impact on descriptive variables in the agricultural growth and made the findings heterogeneous. All the possible initiatives that relevant to the agricultural sector would be reserved by the government of Pakistan to develop the vital agricultural segment.