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Paraguay AGRICULTURE
Unavailable
Figure 6. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Sector, 1986
Source: Based on information from Economist Intelligence Unit, Country
Report: Uruguay, Paraguay, No. 3, London, 1988, 3.
Throughout Paraguay's history, agriculture has been the mainstay
of the economy. This trend continued unabated in the late 1980s as
the agricultural sector generally accounted for 48 percent of the
nation's employment, 23 percent of GDP, and 98 percent of export
earnings
(see
fig. 6). The sector comprised a strong food and cash
crop base, a large livestock subsector, and a vibrant timber
industry.
Growth in agriculture was very rapid from the early 1970s to the
early 1980s, a period when cotton and soybean prices soared and
cropland under cultivation expanded as a result of agricultural
colonization. Growth in agriculture slowed from an average of 7.5
percent annual growth in the 1970s to approximately 3.5 percent in
the mid- to late 1980s. Agricultural output was routinely affected
by weather conditions. Flooding in 1982 and 1983 and severe
droughts in 1986 hurt not only agriculture, but, because of the key
role of the sector, virtually every other sector of the economy as
well.
In the aggregate, however, the advances experienced by the
sector during the 1970s and 1980s did not reach many of the small
farmers, who continued to use traditional farming methods and lived
at a subsistence level. Despite the abundance of land, the
distribution of the country's farmlands remained highly skewed,
favoring large farms. Epitomizing the country's economic activity
in general, the agricultural sector was consolidating its quick
expansion over the two previous decades and only beginning to tap
its potential in the late 1980s.
Data as of December 1988
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