ISLAMABAD: The innovation in Pakistan’s agriculture sector has been hampered by a lack of policy support and a supply-driven approach, which stifles the development of new technologies, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has found.

In its assessment of the agricultural innovation system (AIS) in Pakistan, the UN body examined how the system works, the factors affecting the capacity to develop, foster and scale up climate-smart innovations, and identified gaps and constraints to be addressed to strengthen the AIS.

The assessment was part of the project, ‘Developing capacities in agricultural innovation systems: scaling up the Tropical Agricul­ture Platform Frame­work’, fun­d­ed by the EU under the ‘Deve­lopment of Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture’ initiative.

The activity was conducted to provide insights into challenges, gaps, constraints and other factors enabling or hindering innovation systems. It also provided evidence-bas­ed recommendations and action plans on how to strengthen the AIS through policy dialogue, functional capacity building and specific interventions.

UN body identifies gaps in farmers’ ability to protect crops from pests

The gaps identified in the assessment hinder the realisation of the full potential of innovations under the AIS. “Collaboration was not pursued for all stages of innovation; from innovation development to innovation scaling,” said the assessment report.

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Another factor that limits the potential for scaling innovations is the supply-driven approach for innovation development and scaling instead of a market-driven one.

At the same time, the scope for market formation was limited, as most initiatives were limited to innovation development and pilot implementation, it said.

The innovation projects analysed in the assessment had set budgets, and their implementation and scaling didn’t continue after the budget was spent, the report said, adding that this restricted the sustainable implementation of those innovations.

Research and development processes were not “sufficiently impactful and scalable” due to low resource allocations in ter­ms of both financial and human resources.

The report emphasised policy dialogue among the Ministry of National Food Security and Research and key innovation actors, particularly the Pakistan Agricu­lture Research Council and provincial agriculture depar­tments, to address gaps related to collaboration, innovation and market formation for the sustainability of modern solutions.

Policy initiatives like these were nee­d­ed to ensure that future agricultural innovations will be market-driven and demand-centric, and involve collaboration with public and private sector entities.

The functional analysis indicated that three innovation processes — demand- and market-driven innovation, collaboration, and market formation — needed to be strengthened to make the AIS more successful and impactful.

The assessment report further pointed out that Pakistan’s agricultural research system largely uses a top-down, supply-driven “transfer of technology” approach.

The research designs were based on projects funded through international and national sponsorships and partnerships, and managed by scientists at the federal and provincial levels in public sector research organisations, including universities.

The assessment recommended a policy for collaboration and co-creation through engagement between relevant ministries and public and private sector actors and a policy for intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial initiatives, covering operational and financial self-sustaining aspects of innovation initiatives.

Need for latest technology

The report pointed out that farmers and agriculture departments lack the latest technologies for crop health analysis.

This hampers farmers’ ability to take preventive measures to protect crops from pests.

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The assessment report said the data available to farmers was limited as they were not connected directly with markets because of the low ratio of agriculture extension field workers to farmers.

Farmers lack direct access to markets, as most agricultural produce is managed through middlemen, leaving the farmers at a disadvantage.

Another issue pointed out in the report was farmers’ lack of education about modern agriculture and outdated farming techniques, which resulted in low yields per cultivated acre and higher costs of agricultural produce.

As a result, many farmers were switching to non-farming professions.The report also pointed out the issue of water security, which is challenged by the lack of sufficient storage capacity, such as dams, which limit the storage of rainwater and river water.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2024