The Punjab government is working to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into farmers’ daily activities to improve productivity, forecasting and decision-making, Parliamentary Secretary Osama Leghari said on Thursday.
Speaking as the chief guest at the Pakistan Agricultural Coalition’s (PAC) Agri Connections Conference and Expo at the Lahore Expo Centre, he said the provincial government was focused on using data and technology to transform the agricultural sector.
Leghari said the government aimed to lay the groundwork over the remaining two and a half years of its tenure to enable farmers to use AI-based tools to forecast crop yields and productivity. He said farmers face high costs because they purchase inputs at wholesale prices but often sell their produce at retail prices while also bearing transportation expenses.
Leghari said the government had declared 2026 the “Year of the Value Chain” and was encouraging greater private-sector involvement in agriculture. He urged corporate companies to work directly with farmers, add value to agricultural products and help reduce the role of intermediaries, saying this could increase farmers’ share while also creating profitable opportunities for businesses.
Speaking at the event, Federal Finance Minister’s Adviser Adnan Pasha said Pakistan faced two major long-term challenges beyond traditional security concerns: climate change and population growth. Both, he said, were closely linked to food and water security as well as wider social issues.
He said Pakistan’s population could exceed 370 million or even reach 390 million over the next two decades, creating both significant risks and opportunities.
Pasha said transforming Pakistan’s agriculture sector could not be financed through public-sector resources alone and called for stronger public-private partnerships, with the government providing the necessary ecosystem and risk-sharing mechanisms.
He said the World Bank’s new Country Partnership Framework with Pakistan included a dedicated focus on the agriculture-climate nexus, linking climate resilience, water management, agriculture, food and nutrition security with private-sector investment.
According to Pasha, this approach could help develop investable pipelines and integrated projects rather than isolated initiatives.
He highlighted the need for private investment in the multiplication, processing, testing and distribution of certified climate-resilient seeds capable of withstanding heat, drought, floods and disease.
Water management, he said, was another critical priority, as Pakistan could not achieve sustainable food security while treating water as an unlimited resource. Greater economic and nutritional value needed to be generated from existing water resources through improved on-farm management and water-saving agricultural practices.
PAC Chief Executive Kazim Saeed said the Agri Connections Conference, organised in partnership with the Punjab Agriculture Department, aimed to identify ways to accelerate the development of Pakistan’s agriculture sector amid rapidly changing global trade and investment patterns.
He said Pakistan needed stronger leadership in agriculture, noting that the country was importing commodities such as wheat, cotton and lentils that had been cultivated locally for generations.
Pakistan’s agricultural exports, he added, remained below their potential because of weak competitiveness and food-safety concerns.
World Bank Lead Agriculture Specialist Olivier Durand said Pakistan’s agricultural production remained highly fragmented, with a large number of small farmers lacking adequate links to markets, processors and buyers. He identified limited market access for small farmers as a major challenge for both agriculture and trade.
Durand also highlighted concerns over the affordability of healthy diets, saying a significant portion of Pakistan’s population struggles to afford nutritious food.
He noted that Pakistan had doubled agricultural production over the past three decades and narrowed the gap with some middle-income countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Morocco and Egypt. However, he said the country still lagged behind comparable economies in the production of fruits and vegetables.
During the conference, Siham Jabrane of OCP Morocco delivered a presentation on the impact of input markets on food security, while Syngenta Pakistan also made a presentation.
Another session, organised in partnership with the International Finance Corporation, discussed ways to deregulate agricultural supply chains. The event was co-organised by PAC and Badar Expo Solutions.
Agri-Connections Conference to Focus on Food Security, Climate Change and Investment
