Aitizaz Hassan

The digitisation of the agriculture sector will help farmers to increase their yield and get connected with the market to play their due role in strengthening the national economy, WealthPK reports. Agriculture is still the largest sector of Pakistan’s economy in terms of labour participation. About 40% of the labour force in the country is associated with the sector and the livelihood of the majority of the population directly or indirectly depends on it.

During the last few decades, the contribution of the agriculture sector to GDP  has gradually decreased to 19.3%. However, there is a lot of potential in the sector to increase its share in the GDP through increased productivity by the utilisation of the latest agricultural technologies.

Salman Tufail, an expert, told WealthPK that Pakistan had taken some fruitful steps to increase the involvement of technology in agriculture. He said that awareness should be created among farmers about affordable, effective and appropriate agricultural technologies.

“Farmers should learn from the experiences of government departments and the private sector. The stakeholders should also learn from farmers about the local dynamics, challenges and best practices in the country,” said Salman Tufail.

According to a whitepaper released by the Ministry of Information Technology, the Connected Agriculture Platform Programme (CAPP) was initiated in the country to digitise the agriculture sector. It is the first programme of its kind in the entire Asia Pacific region.

CAPP is meant to make farmers well-connected, well aware and in control of their farming workflow. During the initial stage, 110,000 smartphones were distributed among the farmers registered under Kissan Package.

In the second phase, all the registered farmers got smartphones equipped with special apps that helped them to interact with agriculture experts for advice. The technology has enabled the farmers to check weather conditions and watch videos about the latest production technology of crops and crop calendars.

The whitepaper said that the Punjab Agriculture Department in collaboration with Telenor and Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) developed the mobile app services. “Pakistan is on the journey of digitising different aspects of sectoral value chains to provide better services to farmers and improve their livelihoods,” it added.

Digitisation of the agriculture value chain is in its initial stages. However, some start-ups provide a glimpse into the enterprising nature of various actors in the current landscape and the vast scale of opportunities that exist in digitising the agriculture sector.

Bakhabar Kissan is a dedicated app that helps farmers to increase their yield with updated information and technology. The information provided by this app covers everything from soil preparation to post-harvest, along with livestock and weather updates with audio, video and pictorial presentations.

Ricult helps farmers to implement the best practices and get better access to credit and crop buyers. It helps banks in giving out loans faster. It also enables food processing mills to optimise their supply chains and promote sustainability.

Kisan Zar Zameen is a health analysis app that provides multiple services to farmers, including the use of multi-spectral imagery from satellites. Soil condition, crop health analysis, and weather updates are also provided through this app, making it a one-stop digital solution for farmers. By using this app, farmers can detect crop stress at an early stage, benchmark crop performance and monitor crop growth.

Kissan Bazaar is an online marketplace where a farmer can buy and sell agricultural items. The app includes separate sections for fruit, vegetable, poultry and livestock. It provides an e-commerce facility to farmers, making it easy for them to get access to the market directly through their smartphone.

The Punjab Public Management Reform Programme (PPMRP) launched an Agri Smart app for extension workers with a wide range of services including farmer training sessions, pest warnings, monitoring agricultural inputs, soil sampling and receiving complaints, according to the whitepaper, available with WealthPK.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk