The Connected Agriculture Program Shows Us The Future

We normally don’t think of Pakistan leading the way in farming, but a new program aims to resolve the longstanding challenges faced by the Pakistani farmers.

Through a suite of digital solutions, they intend to improve the farmers’ access to information, financial resources, and market while enhancing supply chain efficiency.

These digital solutions include onboarding, a mobile wallet, weather information, crop calendar, video on demand, expert opinion, marketplace, supply chain tracking, GSM, data SIMs and agriculture subsidies. 

In the first phase of the project, up to 110,000 mobile phones with these apps pre-installed will be distributed. A majority of the farmers also need education on how to use these apps so there will be 500 training sessions to train 25,000 farmers. 

Pakistan’s primary natural resources have been plantable land and water with 34% of the land under cultivation and with roughly 43% of the labor force (64% of households) employed in the agriculture sector which accounts for 21% of GDP. 

Punjab, being the most populated province, contributes roughly 70% of Pakistan's agriculture produce where approximately 60% of the farmers hold less than 5 acres of land.