Pakistan’s Agricultural Potential and Innovation

Jawwad Hasan, CEO and co-founder of Agrilift, describes the company as a next-generation precision farming solution designed to assist farmers in boosting production sustainably and eco-consciously. He believes Pakistan is on the cusp of significant agricultural advancement and innovation.

Speaking with Business Recorder, he noted that Pakistan grapples with almost every conceivable agricultural challenge. This makes it an excellent environment for developing a resilient solution applicable in regions like Africa and potentially adaptable for the Americas.

“We are at a crucial point, balancing vast agricultural opportunities with pressing needs. Many developing countries, including Pakistan, face issues like water scarcity, climate-related disasters, and fragmented land distribution.

If we can find solutions here through technology-driven, scalable models, we can export them worldwide,” he stated.

Food security is a key concern, not only for Pakistan but also for nations facing similar challenges.

“Our success in becoming a global leader in agri-tech hinges on our ability to innovate and secure our food supply,” he emphasized.

This requires investments in research and development, policies that encourage innovation, and collaborative partnerships between the public and private sectors to mitigate experimentation risks.

Attracting leading data experts, engineers, and agricultural scientists is also vital for achieving success.

“Do not dismiss industries that appear traditional or slow-moving—they often hold the greatest untapped potential,” he advised.

Institutionalizing Data-Driven Decision-Making

According to Hasan, the single most impactful change in Pakistan’s agricultural policy would be “to institutionalize data-driven decision-making at all levels of agriculture.”

He elaborated, “It involves protecting farmer privacy while establishing national standards and infrastructure for gathering, analyzing, and sharing farm data. Accurate, real-time data enhances everything else, including credit evaluations, climate adaptation strategies, subsidy targeting, and resource allocation.”

“Without reliable data, we are essentially operating blindly, addressing problems only after they escalate. Pakistan has hardworking farmers and committed policymakers, but it lacks a cohesive, intelligence-led system to guide decisions.”

Hasan believes that this is fundamental to food security and that policy changes can have a significant, transformative impact.

Partnership with FFC

“Our collaborations within Pakistan facilitated the country’s largest agtech implementation of its kind with Fauji Fertilizer Company, enabling us to confirm our technology on an unprecedented scale. During our initial commercial crop cycle, we provided over $3 million in additional value for over 100 farmers, narrowing yield gaps by up to 15%,” he mentioned.

He explained that drones completed over 13,000 missions across 300,000 acres. The company’s agronomists documented more than 40,000 farm input events, enabling precise interventions.

Germination reports offered early, accurate plant counts; digital scouting identified weed clusters, salinity problems, and irrigation deficiencies; and crop health monitoring provided early warnings about pests and diseases, enabling timely control.

Agrilift also discovered that 80% of farmers had miscalculated field sizes, leading to millions in wasted inputs. One farmer overestimated by 15 acres, resulting in Rs10 million in additional expenses.

“These outcomes are from one of Pakistan’s most ambitious agri-tech rollouts,” Hasan stated.

He noted that Pakistan’s agriculture sector faces ongoing challenges, including low yields, water stress, and climate vulnerability, which contribute to food insecurity. However, there is significant potential to transform the future of farming at scale.

Low yields result from various issues, such as inadequate land preparation, late planting, poor-quality seeds, pests, diseases, and climate-related risks. Many farmers still depend on tradition, intuition, and guesswork, leading to considerable errors.

Agrilift’s FarmLink addresses these issues by delivering insights. Developed over three years with a problem-first, technology-agnostic approach, it tackles challenges throughout the entire seed-to-harvest cycle through targeted calls to action.

Combined with on-site agronomy support, this speeds up adoption, multiplies results, and builds farmer trust, according to Hasan.

The next stage involves incorporating these capabilities into Pakistan’s food system and adapting the model globally.

Unlike many agritech solutions that force-fit technology or stop at providing reports, Hasan explained that FarmLink was developed with farmers, focusing on real-world on-the-ground problems—bridging the last-mile gap by ensuring recommendations are implemented down to the plant level.

“We distinguish ourselves through a problem-first design developed in collaboration with farmers using a technology-agnostic approach; comprehensive insights that integrate seed, soil, weather, input logs, and crop data to act before problems arise; and, most importantly, trust built through weekly agronomist visits that translate technology into simple, actionable steps for lasting adoption,” he stated.

Actionable Insights

Agrilift is a platform that transforms farm data into actionable insights, helping farmers make informed decisions for improved yields and profitability. The platform is based on the 3R principle: providing farmers with the Right insight at the Right time so they can make the Right decision.

Agrilift’s vision is to interact with every plant on the farm, enabling data-supported decisions at every stage from seed to harvest. Unlike many agritech ventures, Agrilift combines advanced technology with dedicated field support, bridging the last-mile gap between data and implementation on the farm.

Under Hasan’s leadership, Agrilift has expanded to a team of over 85 members and has tested its technology on half a million acres across more than 9 crops in 22 locations throughout Pakistan.