Digital farming imperative to re-vitalize agricultural growth

With the global agricultural economies rapidly transforming to digitalization, sustenance for developing economies is becoming a challenge especially when an economy endeavors to survive with old modes of farming. Pakistan is the one among such economies where agriculture contributes 24 percent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 37.4 employment opportunities but majority of its farmers still oblivious to latest farming techniques. According to Economic Survey 2023-24, Pakistan produced 31.4 million ton wheat, 9.9 million tones rice, 9.8 million ton maize, 87.6 million ton sugarcane, 10.223 million bales of cotton production and 2090 ton mango production. But it’s lagging behind from most of agrarian countries on international index of progress due to non-usage of modern technologies and value addition is a real challenge. Therefore, digital farming is imperative to re-vitalize agricultural growth to fully benefit from country’s arable land and water resources. Although the government has prepared a comprehensive National Action Plan for agriculture modernization through capacity building and introducing agrarian technology extension, yet our farmers especially the small growers are shying away from modern technologies due to cost of adoption, access to technology and lack of awareness. “We witnessed an increase of 16.82 percent in agriculture productivity but it could not significantly contribute to our overall growth as we failed to adopt digital technology and add value to our products,” stated Spokesman of Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI). “If farmers adopt precision agriculture, digitalization of farm data and value addition, it can help revitalize agricultural growth with minimum input cost helping small growers in mitigating financial impact,” he said. “Simple example is that we have bumper potato production every year, but still we import potato chips.” At a time when the world nations, after digitalization of their agricultural sector, are now fast adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI), we still live in old ages using manual and old techniques of farming. “Our farming practices are decades old. Only 10 to 15 percent progressive farmers are applying the latest techniques and technologies and their yield is better than other farmers,” stated Dr Saqib Ali Associate Professor, University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF). “Bumper crop is based on three factors; high quality disease resistant seed, use of latest technology and efficient use of plantation, irrigation water and fertilizers.” He said it is not possible for a common farmer to plant required number of plants in an acre and evaluate germination of seed on daily basis without using digital technology. Then there is use of modern technique of drip irrigation that save water and reduce cost of production. Same practices can also be applied in use of fertilizers and pesticides. “We also need to promote drone spraying, integrate computer imaging of crops and use artificial intelligence to help farmers upgrade their abilities for cost effective farming,” Dr Saqib said. “These methods would enable them to earn more profit and contribute better to national economic growth.” Promoting websites and network for online buying and selling agricultural products can also save farmers from falling prey in the hands of middlemen. Use of technology can also keep the policy makers abreast of facts and figures about supply and demand of the commodities in local and international markets as well as the changing dynamics of farming. “Digitization can also help check unnecessary wastage of our crops and help farmers enhance their production by 10 percent by using pre and post harvesting modern techniques,” Dr Saqib informed. “Pest scouting has become old and redundant practice. The cam can be installed to monitor crops around the clock and any pest activity can be identified to help farmers control diseases with minimum cost and loss of crop.” Digitalization can also be employed to educate farmers on purchase of inputs and selling their products at right time, right place and on reasonable rates. “Better future for Pakistan is directly linked to digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in different sectors including agriculture,” remarked President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) Dr Khurram Tariq. “These tools can guide farmers in productive use of resources and enhance productivity.” He informed that FCCI has already launched “Cyberabad” – a project to transform Faisalabad into a hi-tech city by using modern techniques including Artificial Intelligence (AI) in different arena of economy including agriculture. “Latest techniques can play a key role in bringing reforms in different sectors of economy and be also made easily accessible to farmers to reap their benefits,” Khurram said. “Farmer community once engaged properly can understand the benefits of modern technologies and utilize them for their own and nation’s benefit.” As the world is changing, it is becoming imperative for developing and growing economies to fully benefit from latest techniques, enhance agricultural production, address food security issues and better compete in international export market. Specifically for a country like Pakistan, bestowed with enormous bounties, a simple shift in policies can help it meet domestic food needs, value addition to its products and boost export to earn valuable foreign exchange for an overall growth and development