Sustainable agriculture: experts say ‘AgriTech’ only solution

HYDERABAD: National and international experts have expressed that food security is a threat due to the shrinking land resources and water scarcity, due to increasing population, settlements on green lands, water logging, and drought in Sindh, while AgriTech is the only solution for sustainable agriculture.

Experts told that for years the small farmer has been away from modern technology, while the world is worried about food security and malnutrition.

These were discussed by the experts at a provincial seminar titled “The role of AgriTech- unlocking opportunities and overcoming Barriers” under the aegis of Sindh Agriculture University and with the support of European Union, Rural Support Program Network (RSPN) and Growpak, at Dr. AM Sheikh Auditorium hall.

Addressing the seminar, Dr. Altaf Ali Siyal, Dean, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, said that despite the rapidly increasing population and water shortage issues, we have not been able to implement modern technology in farming, unfortunately, we have not been able to achieve satisfactory results of better production on less water and making desert areas cultivable.

He said that the use of satellites, drip irrigation systems, drone technology, geo-information system (GIS), and remote sensing are the technologies, in the implementation of which we are still away from developed countries.

James Okoth, Head of FAO, Sindh, said that FAO is working closely with provincial institutions, civil society and research institutions on nutrition, food security and climate change in Pakistan and especially in Sindh province, as the international community is concerned about hunger and economic crisis in developing countries.

Mehmood Nawaz Shah, Senior Vice President of Sindh Abadgar Board said that in the last 70 years, we have been talking about the implementation of modern technology in agriculture, but till now we are stuck in traditional agricultural practices, while modern methods in the shape of AgriTech in agriculture have not yet reached the common farmer, due to which many problems will be faced in the future.

Nabi Bux Sathio, Senior Vice President Sindh Chamber of Agriculture said that many countries, including Pakistan, could not reach the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations in the past, and are still far from the goals of food security and nutrition and sustainable agriculture, he said despite claims, our institutions could not fulfill the requirement of commodity seeds of various crops.

Muzamil Ahmed, Project Coordinator of the Rural Support Program Network (RSPN) said that we are working with institutions to remove obstacles in the implementation of sustainable agriculture and technology in the province and to ensure the implementation of modern technology to the farmers in Sindh after Punjab.

Dr. Muhammad Ismail Kumbhar, Director, University Advancement and Financial Assistance said that AgriTech is a change that can revolutionize agricultural practices, this means leveraging innovations such as technology integration in agriculture, precision agriculture, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and data analytics.

Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr. Jan Muhammad Marri, Director General of Agriculture Research Noor Muhammad Baloch, Director ARI Liaquat Bhutto, Aslam Memon, Wilson Gillal, Ali Nawaz Chanar, Ghulam Sarwar Panhwer, Rano Mal, Faisal Bilal and others were present on this occasion.

On this occasion, Muzamil Ahmed and Bilal Faisal gave their presentation on related topics. On the other hand, in the discussion session, the experts made recommendations regarding the conference on the development of sustainable agriculture in Sindh.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023