The export of China’s advanced agricul
tural te
chnology and service model will greatly improve the agricul
tural development of countries participating in ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI), including Pakistan.
Digital agr
iculture and mechanized agr
iculture can be used as references and focuses for their future implementation,” Liu Zhenlei, Dean of CP-WELLWAY Institute of Smart Agr
iculture told Gwadar Pro in an interview.
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the whole world is facing the pressure of food security. For BRI countries, to improve the scientific and te
chnological level of agr
iculture and the output efficiency of land is of great significance for the development of the economy and the improvement of people’s living standards.
Modern agricul
tural machinery and te
chnologies taking advantage of digital progress has become an imperative for Pakistan, where 84% of land is classified as arable and agr
iculture accounts for 26 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), but the rural population, which represents the backbone of the agricul
tural sector, is comprised mainly of small-scale farmers who lack access to modern farming te
chnologies and machinery, according to a Climate-Smart Agr
iculture survey in Pakistan.
Recently, the 3rd Joint Training Program on Digital Transform
ation for the Belt and Road countries was held by Beijing Te
chnological and Business University (BTBU) in collabor
ation with Economic Cooper
ation Organiz
ation – Science Found
ation (ECOSF). On the occasion, Mr. Liu Zhenlei introduced comprehensive solutions for upgrading digital agr
iculture.
Muhammad Irfan Hussain, a Pakistani PhD candidate from University of Science and Te
chnology, Beijing who participated in the training believes that Pakistan is entering the era of digital development.
Introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine learning and other new te
chnologies can solve problems which have existed for many years. “China is a huge market of AI and China can play a vital role in introducing digital te
chnologies into Pakistan’s agricul
tural development.”
Mr. Liu explained that, “Pakistan can refer to the digital greenhouse experience of modern agr
iculture that China is building, increase the output scale of its economic crops, and improve the efficiency of land use and crop output.” In response to Pakistan’s water shortage, he pointed out that Pakistan can promote water-saving irrig
ation in the whole agricul
tural field to meet the reasonable demand of crops with less water resources.
Under the influence of the epidemic, cross-border e-commerce has developed rapidly and become an important force in stabilizing foreign trade. “The promotion of new cross-border e-commerce sales models of agricul
tural products will help establish brands for excellent products from BRI countries, raise the awareness of regional brands in the world, and bring more foreign exchange earnings.” Mr. Liu highlighted.
CP-WELLWAY Institute of Smart Agr
iculture has added surging impetus to the populariz
ation of digital agr
iculture and industrial upgrading in China. Mr. Liu said that in the future, the institute would gradually export excellent products and technical services to BRI countries according to the needs of their agricul
tural development.