Pakistan In Focus - Climate-smart farming - a solution to increasing temperature.

In the context of climate change, feeding a growing population will remain a constant challenge for the world in the foreseeable future.

The changing climatic patterns will exert an adverse impact on the productive resources, shorten the agriculture growing periods, increase the risk of pests and diseases, in extreme circumstances, result in floods, droughts and heat waves and ultimately reduce agricultural productivity.

According to a research conducted by Germanwatch, Pakistan is predicted to be one of the countries to be affected the most by the rapidly rising temperatures.

To make matters worse, Pakistan, with the world's sixth-largest population at present, is projected to add nearly 100 million people to its population by 2050, according to the UN World Population Prospects 2019.

"With an ever-increasing population, scarce resources and a changing climate, farmers face unrivalled risk and uncertainty," said Bayer Regional Head for Asia Pacific Jens Hartmann while talking to source.

"Agriculture must become highly efficient and sustainable if it has to provide ample food for the growing world population," he added.

Hartmann held the belief that new solutions were needed to help the farmers face the growing challenges. He listed digital innovation and data science as the areas that had the potential to change agriculture for good.

"These modern tools help farmers collect farm-related data, observe and respond to inter and intra-field variability and minimise wastage of resources, thus enhancing productivity and efficiency," he said.

"Drones, in particular, can be a game changer in this sector," Hartmann stressed. "Equipped with sensors having advanced data analytic capabilities, drones can accurately manage variations in crop fields, optimally plant seeds and apply crop protection while minimising the exposure to risks for farmers," he said.

Use of agricultural drones is growing rapidly due to their increasing...