Agriculture sector is the mainstay of Pakistan’s economy and it contributes around 20 percent in the overall gross domestic product (GDP). This sector also provides 65 percent of the total exports of Pakistan. Despite all of these amazing numbers, the agriculture sector presently faces a major challenge of low returns to farmers because of higher costs of production.
In recent times many farmer organizations have staged protests on the roads time and again against the expensive inputs and have demanded decrease in the prices of fertilizers, fuel and electricity charges for agricultural purposes, provision of high quality disease-resistant seeds and a better per acre yield.
20 % of GDP
65 % of Country Exports
50% of employed labour force
No proper advice, counseling and training for small farmers on technology and business
Lack of access to quality seed at affordable prices
Lack of financing on terms that small farmers can understand and use
Lack of use of modern technologies
Limited market knowledge
Bring down high cost of inputs (seeds, fertilizer, chemicals)
Increase yields (Education, Mechanization, technology)
Fill Value Chain infrastructure Gaps (Cold Chain, Storage facilities)
Aggregation and coordination of small farmers
Global Market Size
According to a new market intelligence report by BIS Research, the global smart farming market is expected to reach $23.14 billion by 2022, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.3% from 2017 to 2022.
The market growth is primarily attributed to the increasing demand for higher crop yield, the growing penetration of information and communication technology (ICT) in farming, and the increasing need for climate-smart agriculture.
The Growing Use of Smart Farming Worldwide
In the coming years, smart farming is projected to create a massive impact on the agricultural economy by bridging the gap between small and large-scale businesses.
In countries such as China and Japan, wide-scale deployments of smartphones and internet of things (IoT) systems have led to a rapid adoption of precision agriculture solutions. The governments of several countries have also realized the need for, and the advantages of these technologies, and thus, their initiatives to promote precision farming techniques are expected to drive the growth of the market further.
Trends in Precision Agriculture
Companies in the market offer a variety of solutions for several types of precision crop farming applications such as precision irrigation, yield monitoring and forecasting, variable rate application, crop scouting, and recording keeping, among others.
The introduction of autonomous milking robots into milk harvesting is expected to augment the growth of smart agriculture in the livestock sector. In addition, growing urbanized areas and the increasing demand for fresh agricultural produce all year round shall propagate the growth of indoor farming.
Aquaculture is also witnessing greater integration of aquaculture management software for the efficient breeding of aquatic species.
Automated farming, over the past five years, agricultural robots have also been incorporated into farming operations as they treat soil and crops selectively as per their requirements and reduce the need for manual labor. UAV/drones generated the highest revenue amongst all agricultural robots utilized in smart farming. The majority of robot deployment was done for crop management.
The Asia-Pacific region is projected to display the fastest market growth from 2017 to 2022. The region presents an immense scope for market development, owing to the increasing urban population size, growing market penetration of Internet in farm management, and favorable government investments. Moreover, the presence of economically advancing countries such as India and China are expected to make the region a primary part of the growth of precision agriculture in the upcoming years.