Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif inaugurated the Land Information and Management System – Center of Excellence (LIMS – COE) on Friday to boost food security and provide farmers with direct access to markets. The cash-strapped country has been taking initiatives to end its dependence on foreign aid after the IMF deal.

“The objective of the establishment of LIMS is to increase food security and agricultural exports and reduce the burden on the national exchequer by reducing imports,” said a statement issued by the government.

Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir was also present at the occasion. Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir was also present at the occasion. The ceremony was also attended by ministers of finance, defence, planning development & special initiative, national food security & research, information, chief secretaries of provincial governments, agricultural experts and senior army officials.

Pakistan’s agriculture sector contributes 23 per cent to the GDP and employs 37.4 per cent of the labour force. But over the past many years, the country’s economic lifeline has been linked with the International Monetary Fund loans.

Before reaching a staff-level agreement with the IMF, the government launched the ‘Economic Revival Plan’ capitalising on Pakistan’s untapped potential in key sectors that includes agriculture. For this, the government set up the Special Investment Facilitation Council.

“We have really good infrastructure [of defence production] … and we see the potential of export here,” Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Wednesday.

With the new facility, the government aims to bring millions of uncultivated land within the country under cultivation. The agricultural production under LIMs would be maximized through modern technology, it added.

“According to the World Food Organization, 36.9 per cent of Pakistanis are suffering from food insecurity and 18.3 per cent of Pakistanis are suffering from severe food crisis,” the statement said.

Under the project, farmers would be given timely information on weather changes, satellite monitoring of crops, water, fertilizer and spray usage, besides direct access to markets.

Discussions are ongoing to include Saudi Arabia, China, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain in the project.

Saudi Arabia provided an initial $500 million investment to set up the facility, a senior official told Arab News on Thursday. He added that the government has established the centre to enhance modern agro-farming by utilising over nine million hectares of uncultivated state land.

The country faces a shortfall of four million metric tons in wheat production against a total demand of 30.8 million metric tons.

“As far as the high-efficiency irrigation system is concerned, Saudi Arabia has already given us [Pakistan] $500 million,” Maj Gen Shahid Nazeer, who heads the LIMS-CoE, told reporters at a briefing on Thursday.

“Aimed at enhancing modern agro-farming utilizing over 9 million hectares of uncultivated waste state land, LISM-CoE has been established under the director general strategic projects of Pakistan Army.”

In the next three-four days, Nazeer said that “a very high-powered Saudi delegation” would come to Pakistan to explore this kind of investment in four major sectors including agriculture, mines and minerals, information technology (IT) and defence production. It would be done under the umbrella of the SIFC, he added.

Nazeer added that the main objectives of the centre were as followed:

• Consolidation and reclamation of uncultivated wasteland, optimal decision; what and where to grow
• Development of a master plan for modern farming
• Implementation of state-of-the-art agriculture management practices
• Practicing agro-intelligence for digital and precision agriculture
• Better utilisation of technology to enhance yield and effective decision support system

The newly-formed centre recently initiated modern agri-farming projects in Punjab, an official told the foreign media. Efforts were being made to use certified hybrid seeds with concurrent development involving joint ventures with multinational companies, which could pay rich dividends.

“Hybrid seed gives 30-50 per cent more yield, the world is using 80 per cent hybrid seed, while Pakistan currently uses only 8 per cent of hybrid seed,” he said.