By Omer Bilal Islamabad, Feb. 04 (INP-WealthPK): The world population is growing at a rapid rate. Having grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7 billion in 2012, it is expected to continue to accelerate and surpass 9.6 billion by 2050. In order to feed over 2.5 billion more people and prevent widespread famine in the next few decades, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that food production will need to increase by 70% by 2050. Machine to Machine Economy (M2M economy) is the fastest growing phenomenon worldwide with certain countries having implemented it as regulations. With rapid growth in technology and artificial intelligence, it is foreseen that in the coming 10 to 15 years, M2M economy will saturate into all dimensions of business and impact the industry and economy at large. The existing information technology has been used worldwide for several years to provide wireless point of sale applications. Smart farming or smart agriculture is not only for large farms and research centres, but it is starting to impact small and medium-sized farms too. The agriculture sector is receptive to technical innovation and is already taking information from sensors, machinery and weather stations. Transfer and storage of agriculture commodities and cereals without any damage is the need of the new era. M2M was recently referred to as technologies that enable communication between machines without human intervention. Examples include telemetry, traffic control, robotics, and other applications involving device-to-device communications. M2M would typically cover the elements where machines communicate with each other with little or no human intervention. The Government of Punjab has established collateral management company (CMC) all over the districts of Punjab, which will eradicate the role of the middle man. Around 13 to 14 state-of-the-art warehouses set up in different districts are providing a big platform to the cultivators to store their products. In return, a ware house receipt (WHR) is given to the consumer through which loan from a commercial bank could be taken for further cultivation. The provincial government is going to introduce M2M economy for generation of WHR in which involvement of human resource will be reduced. This machine economy exercise includes collection of cultivated raw product, measuring quality, quantity, temperature, inventory, time period and estimating cost of the product. M2M connectivity will dramatically change the way of transaction of business assets and the future workforce along with the skill required to succeed in a future automated economy. In this M2M economy, transactions and other activities can take place autonomously between devices, sensors and machines — ultimately saving and delivering products and services to consumers and businesses, independent of human action. This initiative will also help increase quality of exports. The machine economy promises significant benefits for people, businesses, and a broader economy in context of documented and digital economy. It reduces costs and increases revenue, enabling the growers trust. Improving operational efficiency, M2M economy allows organizations as well as consumers to monitor and track assets right from inventory across the entire supply chain. It reduces the need for businesses to own, maintain, and manage agricultural product. Onboarding of this technology will also help maintain the required level of humidity for agricultural products. According to a report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), M2M devices are connected to the internet, using a variety of fixed and wireless networks and communicate with each other. M2M economy seems a perfect method of adoption, as no human is involved in the equation. It provides a better digital solution for digitalization of economy, especially the agriculture sector. The Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunications (MoIT&T) in Section 3(iii) of Telecom Policy-2015 has emphasized provision of new services using the latest technologies. In view of the latest trends of M2M economy and 5G, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has created an industry working group. The aim of this working group is primarily to foresee the M2M economy future developments in Pakistan and to evaluate and recommend the possible regulatory options.