RAWALPINDI: Punjab Minister for Agriculture Syed Hussain Jahanian Gardezi on Saturday said ‘Smart Farms’ would help farmers to get modern agricultural technology to increase the agricultural production.

He stated this at the inauguration of the Precision Agriculture centre established at University Research Farm (URF), Koon of Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi.

The aim of establishing this centre was to promote digital and precision agriculture at the national level so that the farmers will be aware of the needs of their crops in real time.

Besides, the arid university Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Qamaruz Zaman, Vice Chancellor University of Agriculture Faisalabad Prof. Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan and PCSIR Chairman Dr Syed Hussain Abidi were also present at the event.

“High losses are being faced and the establishment of this farm will be effective in bringing modern agricultural technology to the farmers,” said Punjab agriculture minister.

He asked the vice-chancellors of the universities to facilitate the access of farmers to farms like this so that digital agriculture and precision agriculture can be popularised in Pakistan.

The provincial minister further said that by promoting modern agricultural technology and digital agriculture, Pakistan cannot only become self-sufficient in agricultural production but also realize the dream of exporting agricultural products.

He congratulated Chancellor Prof Dr Qamaruz Zaman and his team for establishing this farm and emphasized on updating its data on back end on a daily basis.

He also congratulated the Vice-Chancellor for introducing modern digital and precision agriculture for the first time in the university.

The provincial minister also indicated the allocation of funds for precision agriculture.

Later, the provincial minister inaugurated the Smart IoT Farm and also reviewed the use of smart spray, drone technology, GNSS land leveling system, auto-steering technology, automatic irrigation system and other precision farming.

While addressing, Prof Dr Qamaruz Zaman said that it is the need of the hour to strengthen industry-academia ties to promote modern agricultural technology for which agriculture scientists will have to make every effort to solve the problems of farmers.

Precision agriculture will not only increase per acre production but will also help to eliminate poverty and also ensure food security.

While highlighting precision agriculture he said that it can play a dynamic role to tackle all the problems which are facing the farmers by providing a smart agriculture system to increase agriculture production.

The Vice Chancellor also appreciated the efforts of Prof. Dr. Jahanzeb Masud Cheema and Dr. Naveed Tahir for establishing Smart IoT Farm and hope that this farm will contribute to uplift the livelihood of small farmers.

Prof. Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan stressed the need for adopting a more advanced approach to agriculture and said that modern technologies need to be promoted for precision agriculture and higher productivity.

Dr. Syed Hussain Abidi and Dr. Abid Sulehri congratulated the faculty and vice chancellor for establishing Smart IoT Farm which will allow agriculture production & business to be more profitable, efficient, safer and environment friendly.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2022