Demonstration of half feed rice harvester. Credit: CABI

Demonstration of cob picker. Credit: CABI

Machine of wheat investors working in the field. Credit: CABI

Data collection of rice harvesting. Credit: CABI

Data collection of maize harvesting. Credit: CABI

Demonstration of, and training on, latest farm machinery for maize growers. Credit: CABI

Farmers learn the benefits of the cob picker during a training and literacy session held by CABI. Credit: CABI

Demonstration of, and training on, latest farm machinery for maize growers. Credit: CABI

Demonstration of, and training on, latest farm machinery for maize growers. Credit: CABI

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Project Overview

So, what’s the problem

Agriculture plays a significant role to Pakistan’s economy and food security. The sector contributes to the country’s GDP, it employs over 40% of its labour sector, exports and provides livelihoods to its rural population.

Punjab is Pakistan’s largest province for population and economy and contributes to 57% of Pakistan’s agriculture production value. The province has the largest share of the country’s main crops: maize, wheat, cotton, sugarcane and rice.

However, the sector suffers significant crop losses during harvesting, threshing, cleaning, drying, milling, storage, processing, cooking and consumption.

According to available data, aggregate losses during various post-harvest operations in Pakistan are around 15.3 % for wheat (PCP), 14 % for rice and more than 14% for maize of total production (TDAP).

These losses are caused by a combination of factors, including knowledge, technology and information gaps, poor infrastructure and marketing, and barriers associated with small farming systems, such as dependency on commission agents, for market access, financial services, informal insurance, and other critical inputs and services.

Advanced technologies, such as irrigation systems, mechanized farming technologies and marketing management ICT tools, can have and have been shown to have, a positive impact on farming, improving efficiency, productivity and profitability in the region. These technologies have since been introduced and made available to smallholder farmers in Punjab. However, due to a lack of resources and access to them, they are underutilized. As a result, farmers in the value chain are marginalized and the sector’s performance worsened.

What is this project doing?

To address these challenges, the sector’s losses and regenerate Punjab’s agriculture sector, this project will help facilitate the adoption of advanced technologies with a focus on harvest, postharvest and marketing for three grain crops: rice, wheat and maize.

Smallholder farmers will be targeted and through increased access to new technologies and training in these, the project will help strengthen value chains in Punjab, improve farmers’ livelihoods but also increase food security and provide sustainable agricultural growth for the province.

The project will produce four outputs.

1. To demonstrate the use of advanced harvest and postharvest technologies
2. To develop and install an ICT-based direct marketing platform to improve marketing
3. To build the capacity of stakeholders in developing and adopting advanced technologies
4. To formulate investment opportunities to scale-up adoption of technologies