Economic Geography: Resources, Production and Trade
Economic geography studies the spatial organisation of economic activity — where things are produced, exchanged, and consumed, and why. It connects physical geography (resources, climate) to economics (production, trade) and policy (development, regional planning).
The branch of geography that investigates the spatial distribution and organisation of economic activities — primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary sectors — and the patterns of trade, transport, and development that link them.
Sectors of the economy
Economic activities are conventionally classified:
- Primary — extraction of raw materials: agriculture, fishing, forestry, mining.
- Secondary — manufacturing and construction.
- Tertiary — services (retail, transport, finance, health, education).
- Quaternary — knowledge-based services: research, IT, consulting, design.
- Quinary — top-level decision-making (some classifications): senior government, executive leadership.
Sectoral shift during economic development sees employment migrating from primary to secondary to tertiary/quaternary — Pakistan's primary share has fallen from over 60% in the 1950s to about 37% today.
Resource geography
Energy
- Non-renewable: coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear (uranium).
- Renewable: hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, tidal.
OPEC members (founded 1960, headquartered Vienna) control most of the world's spare oil capacity; the Persian Gulf holds ~50% of proven reserves. Pakistan's energy mix is roughly 60% fossil fuels (gas, oil, LNG), ~25% hydro, ~6% nuclear, and a growing share of solar/wind. Major gas fields include Sui (Balochistan, discovered 1952), Mari, and Qadirpur.
Minerals
Pakistan's notable mineral wealth includes:
- Reko Diq copper-gold (Balochistan) — one of the world's largest undeveloped deposits.
- Saindak copper-gold (Chagai).
- Coal at Thar (Sindh) — among the world's largest lignite reserves (~175 billion tonnes).
- Chromite, rock salt (Khewra Salt Mine, world's second largest), gypsum, marble, gemstones (emeralds, rubies, peridot).
Agriculture
Global patterns
- Subsistence agriculture (intensive or shifting) feeds the farmer's family.
- Commercial agriculture produces for the market.
- Plantation agriculture — large estates for cash crops (tea, rubber, cocoa, oil palm).
The Green Revolution (1960s onwards) introduced high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of wheat (Norman Borlaug) and rice, irrigation, fertilisers, and mechanisation, multiplying yields in Punjab and elsewhere.
Agriculture in Pakistan
Agriculture contributes ~23% of GDP and employs ~37% of the labour force. Major crops:
| Crop | Role | Main growing area |
|---|---|---|
| Wheat | Staple; largest crop by area | Punjab, Sindh |
| Cotton | Cash crop; basis of textile industry | Southern Punjab, Sindh |
| Rice | Major export | Punjab, Sindh |
| Sugarcane | Cash crop | Punjab, KP |
| Maize | Feed and food | KP, Punjab |
The Indus Basin Irrigation System is the largest contiguous irrigation network in the world, with around 60,000 km of canals.
- Pakistan's agriculture sector contributes ~23% of GDP and employs ~37% of the workforce.
- Pakistan is the world's 4th largest cotton producer and a major rice exporter (basmati).
- The Indus Basin Treaty (1960) allocates the three eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) to India and the three western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) to Pakistan.
- The textile sector generates ~60% of Pakistan's export earnings.
Industry
Industrial location theory is anchored by Alfred Weber's least-cost theory (1909), which selects sites that minimise transport, labour, and agglomeration costs. August Lösch added the market-area dimension. Modern agglomeration economies explain industrial clusters (Silicon Valley, Sialkot's surgical instruments cluster, Faisalabad's textiles cluster).
Pakistan's industrial base centres on textiles, leather, sports goods (Sialkot footballs), surgical instruments, cement, fertiliser, and food processing. Special Economic Zones under CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, launched 2015) aim to accelerate industrial development.
Transport and trade
Transport infrastructure underwrites economic geography. Global trade is dominated by maritime shipping (~80% of trade volume), with major chokepoints at:
- Strait of Hormuz — ~21% of world oil flows.
- Strait of Malacca — between Pacific and Indian Ocean trade.
- Suez Canal — Mediterranean to Red Sea.
- Panama Canal — Atlantic to Pacific.
- Bab-el-Mandeb — Gulf of Aden.
Pakistan's strategic position at the head of the Arabian Sea, with ports at Karachi, Port Qasim, and Gwadar, places it astride routes from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. Gwadar, developed under CPEC, is conceived as a deep-sea hub linking western China to the Arabian Sea.
Trade theory
- Comparative advantage (David Ricardo, 1817) — countries gain by specialising in goods they produce relatively more efficiently.
- Heckscher-Ohlin — countries export goods that use their abundant factors intensively.
- New trade theory (Krugman) — economies of scale and product differentiation create intra-industry trade.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO), founded 1995 as successor to GATT, sets multilateral trade rules. Pakistan is a founding WTO member.
Regional development theory
- Growth-pole theory (François Perroux, 1955) — economic activity concentrates around dynamic industries that radiate prosperity.
- Core-periphery model (John Friedmann, 1966) — uneven development between a dominant core and dependent periphery.
- Cumulative causation (Gunnar Myrdal) — initial advantages compound through positive feedback ("Matthew effect").
For economic-geography questions, anchor abstract theory in a Pakistan example: Sialkot for industrial clusters, Karachi for port-led growth, Gwadar for new infrastructure-led development, Thar for resource frontier. The combination of a Western theorist and a local example is the hallmark of strong CSS answers.
Globalisation
Late-20th-century globalisation re-organised production into global value chains — Pakistani cotton is spun in Faisalabad, dyed in Karachi, stitched into garments for export to retailers in Europe and North America. Manuel Castells argued that the network economy has produced a "space of flows" alongside the traditional "space of places". For an open mid-income economy like Pakistan, success in trade depends on integration into these chains while managing the volatility they bring.