‘More smart agriculture cooperation needed’

Rawalpindi : Professor Dr. Muhammad Azam Khan, Chairman, Department of Horticulture, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi has called for more smart agriculture cooperation with China.

“We want to take help from China like soil fertility sensors and wheat harvesting technology.”

“The aim of smart agriculture is to provide input according to crops’ need and do precise application of fertilizers, crop seeds, insecticides, fungicides, etc. to increase production and profitability. China has already doing smart agriculture, providing input according to crops, he said in an interview with China Economic Net (CEN).

“We are doing various experiments including drip irrigation and drone technology application, and we are going to develop a model for soil fertilization after doing GPS-based soil zoning,” Dr. Muhammad Azam Khan said.

As CPEC enters the second phase, more emphasis has been placed on improving local people’s livelihood, and a lot of agricultural cooperation is happening between China and Pakistan. Now also working as the Director of CPEC Agriculture Cooperation Centre at PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Azam Khan once was a Pakistani student who studied in China for years and benefitted from Sino-Pak cooperation.

Currently, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi is doing two joint agricultural projects with China i.e. remote sensing for sprayer technology and advanced vegetable production technology. “We have established drone technology with them (China) for advanced sprayer technology. Now, we are providing training at our research farms to farmers and students about precise insecticide and pesticide application on agricultural crops by using drone.