By Qudsia Bano ISLAMABAD, Jan. 24 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan is an agricultural country that has experienced significant diversification over time, but farmers haven't fully embraced digital farming due to perceived complications. Farmers must be encouraged to embrace the most up-to-date agricultural technologies by digital farming. They must be capable to determine what to cultivate at a given time if they are up to speed on the market. The current agricultural system is beset by issues such as a lack of adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) by multiple players, a scarcity of cash, and inadequate transportation. In the agricultural food chain, there is also a lack of training and engagement. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, the internet of things (IoT) has the potential to boost agricultural productivity by 70% by 2050. When scaled across small-scale farms, this technology can help farmers optimise the use of inputs and limited resources for higher yields and productivity. Agriculture is on the verge of a technological revolution on a global scale. Due to the utilisation of technologies such as sensors, gadgets, machinery, and IT, modern farms and agricultural operations operate very differently than those of a few decades ago. In Pakistan's fertile Punjab province, a digital effort has been launched to empower farmers with digital agriculture solutions and to develop smart communities. In Pakistan, this is the first digital agriculture community network project of its sort. The Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) has created a software to assist the province's food authorities in tracking and regulating open market wheat and flour deliveries. Recently, a Digital Dera was established in a small village in Pakpattan district of Punjab as a first step towards developing smart internet-connected villages in the country, providing local farmers with access to the newest technology and resources in the farming sector. Fawad Bajwa, Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Dera, told WealthPK that the first Smart Agriculture Village has been launched with the help of Punjab government to promote agricultural digitalisation in the rural areas of the country. “We provide local farmers with high-speed internet, satellite data, soil data, water management and pesticides management under Digital Dera which has been launched in five villages near Pakpattan. We have smart technologies and devices which not only help the farmers with weather forecasts, but also about the right time to sow seeds, pesticides management, water needs of the land and automated tube wells,” he said. Fawad told WealthPK that with the introduction of these smart technologies in villages, huge investments have been saved in the agricultural sector. “We have huge potential to promote our agricultural produce locally rather than importing foreign machineries and services, we can locally train our farmers so they could produce quality food,” he said. Fawad said Digital Dera will also function as a digital hub for organising awareness and capacity development sessions to educate the youth and small farmers about agriculture, food security, and climate change policy.