Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Poverty Eradication in Pakistan: The Role of Foreign Aid and Government Policies

Furqan Sikandar, Vasilii Erokhin, Li Xin (), Marina Sidorova, Anna Ivolga and Alexey Bobryshev
Additional contact information
Furqan Sikandar: College of Economics and Management, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Vasilii Erokhin: School of Economics and Management, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China
Li Xin: College of Economics and Management, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Anna Ivolga: Faculty of Social and Cultural Service and Tourism, Stavropol State Agrarian University, Stavropol 355017, Russia
Alexey Bobryshev: Faculty of Accounting and Finance, Stavropol State Agrarian University, Stavropol 355017, Russia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-14

Abstract: For decades, agriculture has been central to economic growth and development in Pakistan. However, endemic rural poverty hinders the performance of agricultural production, and thus deteriorates the sustainable development perspectives of the agricultural sector and the entire country. The need for agricultural reform emphasizes raising farmers’ incomes as a cornerstone of the sustainable development of rural areas, and this study attempts to reveal the effects of foreign aid and government policies on the level of rural poverty in Pakistan. In total, 384 farmers from major agricultural areas of Pakistan completed the survey-based questionnaire. The partial least square structural equation modelling technique tested the results. They, using sustainable agriculture practices, improved agricultural production positively and significantly. Agriculture production positively and significantly reduces or mitigates poverty. This study aimed to reveal the role of foreign aid in sustaining agricultural production and eradicating rural poverty. Foreign aid positively moderated the association between sustainable agriculture practices and agricultural production. In addition, government policies negatively, yet insignificantly, moderate the association between agriculture production and poverty reduction. Furthermore, the findings indicate that agriculture production positively and significantly mediates the association between sustainable agriculture practices and poverty reduction. The study contributes to the literature by improving the understanding of linkages within the poverty-policies-aid-sustainability framework.

Keywords: sustainable agriculture practices; agriculture production; poverty reduction; foreign aid; government policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/14751/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/14751/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:14751-:d:967427

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().