NIC incubate SAWIE Ecosystems serving more than 0.675 million farmers in Pakistan through its Climate Smart agriculture advisory. SAWIE joined hands with Bank Alfalah, one of the leading banks serving farmers through signing MoU to pledge farmers enhance their productivity and increase income. Sustainable agriculture is a way forward to produce more from less without compromising the ability of future generations accessing water, food and air quality.
The world population be reaching 9 billion by 2050, feeding them with the existing food system and practices is biggest challenge. The food production is facing immense challenge from climate change. Agriculture use more than 90% of the fresh water. The availability of water, soil health, pressure from invasive species of pests & diseases, post-harvest losses and poor economics of smallholder farmers which are about 510 million globally.
Agriculture plays important role in providing food, fiber, fuel and stewardship to protect our environment. However, due to climate change the agriculture sector is battling for its survival. The smallholders harvesting low crop yield which is typically 50% lower than large farmers and several times less compared to the crop yield potential. They lack appropriate knowledge, access to quality seed, fertilizer, irrigation and appropriate mechanization tools. This is where an agriculture crop advisory service can be invaluable to guide them from seed-to-seed solutions.
SAWIE strategy lead Mr Fritz Boehmler said, this partnership will help smallholder farmers especially women to realize the potential of their farm resources to produce enough food for the family and sell to improve their living standards.
Through partnership, Mr Yahya Hameed said, we aim to ease access in rural finance through digital connectivity. Dr Khalid Mahmood from SAWIE applauded the vision of bank management supporting green financing & climate smart agriculture transformation plan.
Dr Arshad Project Director NIC said, we are delighted to see our incubate making this progress and wanted to take this mission for embarking second green revolution in Pakistan.