RAHIM YAR KHAN, Punjab, Pakistan, June 28 (IPS) – Farmer Abdul Waheed, 32, has been using his mobile phone for everything but work for the past seven years. But after a recent training session, he installed six farming apps and says the move has paid off.
Waheed, from Ahmedpur Lamma village in Punjab province, said: “I mainly use a mobile app to sell and buy livestock, which has boosted my income. “I am also using another app that gives me information about weather forecasts, soil health, equipment, and most importantly, biopesticide use. This has helped me cut costs by 10% because conventional pesticides are more expensive because they are imported,” he added in a recent interview.
Pakistan is considered an agricultural country. According to the 2017 census, 64 percent of the population is rural and 36 percent urban. Agriculture, concentrated in the Punjab and Sindh provinces, contributes 19% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employs 38% of the workforce. Today, 90% of farmers (7.4 million) are considered ‘small farmers’ because they own less than 5 hectares of land.
And now agriculture can be seen through another landscape – a digital landscape. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of online tools is accelerating in every sector in Pakistan – from finance to healthcare, education and services. This transition is also creating opportunities for the digitalization of agriculture.
Against this backdrop, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the 1,000 Digital Villages Initiative (DVI) in Pakistan. So far, it is taking the form of a pilot project in Punjab and Sindh.
In late May and early June, FAO Pakistan carried out a baseline assessment of 22 villages in seven provincial districts, including 54 local women and 100 men. About two weeks later, it trained more than 1,000 farmers and villagers on six different digital apps related to agriculture, water conservation, and an online marketplace to buy and sell agricultural products. .
IPS visited four villages in Rahim Yar Khan, a district in Punjab, to meet men and women who had participated in live and virtual training sessions organized by FAO Pakistan in partnership with non-profit organizations local Center for Agriculture and Food Excellence (FACE) organization and Rural Education and Socio-Economic Development.
The men and women interviewed said they did not know how digital technology can help them in their work. Many people eagerly show the apps they have installed and started using on their phones. Most involve services to farmers – timely information on weather and market prices, crop health, soil fertility, water use and market access. Women have access to information on sewing, stitching and embroidery, health and hygiene.
“I managed to increase my household income by more than 20% by selling apparel online, and my travel expenses to meet clients and purchase materials fell by more than 25% because I started using an app. use social media,” said Uzma, 32, who has used mobile phones for six years but was unaware of the apps, which are now a key component of her business.
Besides using popular social media apps to market clothes and take orders, Uzma, from the village of Ahmedpur Lama, said she buys her raw materials online. With her newfound digital literacy, she’s also using the bank’s mobile app to make payments and help her kids with their studies, especially science and math.
FAO Pakistan project leader on DVI, Muhammad Khan, said the response from the practitioners was better than expected. “We were surprised to see the level of concern the villagers showed when they were trained. To scale up the implementation of DVI in minimal time, FAO Pakistan decided to integrate it as a component in current and future projects. “
Most of the trained villagers said that they also regularly use popular social apps. That access opened a new door to earning a living for Muhammad Sajid, 33. “I learned mobile phone repair skills by watching various video tutorials and this helped me open a repair shop. repair cell phones in his village,” he said. He adds, using his online skills to help villagers buy and sell agricultural products and livestock.
All of the farmers that IPS spoke to said that mobile phone connectivity boosted their operations. “With an agricultural application, I learned the difference between many fertilizers, which fertilizer is best for my crops, and how to fertilize it. Now I am getting the maximum yield from my crops,” says Muhammad Haseeb, 29.
Shahid Hussain said that after attending a meeting about digital tools for farmers in his village, he converted a manual pesticide sprayer into an automatic one, saving valuable time. Using an app, he learned more about feeding his animals and changed the way they feed them. He added: “My cattle are now producing more milk than before.
With the results to date, FAO’s Khan predicts that in the next 5 years, most villages in Pakistan will be connected to a digital ecosystem with farmers and their neighbors managing their affairs. them and other aspects of their lives, using digital technologies and applications.
A global initiative inspired by FAO Director-General, Mr. QU Dongyu, DVI is being piloted in the Asia-Pacific region. Villages in Pakistan are among many that are being showcased and sharing their progress with other villages and regions in the Asia-Pacific and other parts of the world.
© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
