Digital Hujra

Use of modern tech, digitalised farming to help fight food insecurity

The growing food insecurity is a major challenge to the countries hit by water shortage, where agriculture land is shrinking and the population growth is unchecked.

Pakistan being one of those countries where farmers fearing low productivity are giving up agriculture and changing their professions, while the younger generation of the farming community in the hope of better livelihood are shifting to big cities further turning the productive lands barren or transforming them into clumsy housing schemes, which is earning them one-time good money.

The climatic changes have badly hit the agriculture sector, sticking to the centuries-old traditional farming techniques and conventional means, besides marketing coercions has also made the life miserable for Pakistani farmers. But not anymore. The farmers in the northern Malakand Division, facing similar challenges, have found Digital Hujra a blessing in disguise, which will be offering a solution to their problems in a scientific and digitalised way, making farming more productive.

Based on the concept of Pakhtuns community gathering place, Hujra, the digital one is an innovation of the new era where youngsters in the far-off mountainous regions also have latest mobile sets in their hands after digital revolution in the region, so why not click the button for food security and enhanced crops. The Digital Hujra is operational now.

The Digital Hujra, which is a replica of Digital Dera, introduced by a group of experts in Pakpattan, Punjab, will help the farmers of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to fight modern day challenges in farming and provide digital services and technology for effective crop management, pest control, fruits processing, promoting agricultural products, fisheries and tourism in the Malakand Division.

Winning Hearts and Minds (WH&M) of Pakistan Army in collaboration with the University of Malakand’s initiative launched on May 30, by Dean Arts and Humanities Prof Dr Atta ur Rehman and Brigadier Jawad, the Digital Hujra Programme Centre would connect young rural communities to modern technology through digital means for better crops and economic contribution and is a physical globally connected rural innovation incubation in the Malakand Division established for remote rural youth and farming communities.

With the technical support of the Digital Dera Pakpattan and the University of Malakand, the Digital Hujra will connect young rural communities to the internet, helping them realise their potential and become productive contributors to the society and economy.

Besides, the Digital Hujra will help promote innovative and digitally-empowered peaceful interventions that can help counter violence and extremism through engagement in skilled economic activities in the Malakand Division, which was once badly hit by terrorism.

The Digital Hujra Centre is covering the five rural and agricultural communities of Lower Dir, including Ramora, Ali Must, Gul Maqam, Darbar and Sehsadah villages and is being expanded to the centres at the University of Buner, University of Swat, Abdul Wali Khan University and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University Sheringal.

The centre with the latest computing and high-speed internet is deploying locally-manufactured weather stations, automating tube-wells to smart irrigation-based systems. It has introduced spray and agriculture land survey drones assembled and designed in Pakistan and has enabled satellite-based precision agriculture system with yield prediction.

Its smart water irrigation system has already been deployed and the farmers are saving both water and electricity.

Designed by the Digital Dera smart villages network Chief Executive Officer Fouad Riaz Bajwa and Chief Operating Officer Aamer Hayat Bhandara, the Digital Hujra Centre will be working towards uplifting the Malakand Division’s most remote rural and youth communities and collaborating with small farmers, livestock owners, traders and micro-entrepreneurs; economically disadvantaged youth, women and young members of the vulnerable rural households living below the poverty line.

Speaking to BOL News, Bajwa, who is also the Co-Founder of Agriculture Republic and Digital Dera, said: “We are on a mission to democratise agricultural technology and provide it to small farmers for free and all this at their doorsteps.”

“The Digital Hujra is an innovative approach to connect and empower remote rural young communities using the internet and digital agriculture practices in Pakistan. It is high time that we include the 70 per cent rural population in the growth and development of Pakistan,” he said, adding: “The needs and requirements of the rural communities is very different from the opportunities that the youth enjoy in urban centres. We must establish village level information and communications technology infrastructure that will be sensitised to the needs of remote rural communities.”

The Agriculture Republic through its Digital Dera smart villages network are deploying Digital Hujras in collaboration with its multi-stakeholder partnership across the Malakand Division and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, as well as Punjab and has become a model for the world from Pakistan, Bajwa said.

“The initiative highlights Pakistan’s efforts to connect its citizens across the remote rural regions and help these communities benefit from the same opportunities that the young people enjoy in the urban centres,” he noted.

Aamer Hayat Bhandara, who is also the Founder Agriculture Republic and Digital Dera, said that the Digital Hujra has been established by the farmers for the farmers.

The small farmers are left out from the technological innovation that the corporate and large farmers enjoy. The small farmers cannot afford these technologies; thus, they survive on subsistence farming using guess work. They cannot reap the benefits of having up-to-date crop and weather information, as well as access to the national and global markets due to the lack of these innovations. Digital Hujra has brought the capacity and technology to their doorsteps.

“Now, the farmers can improve their farming, irrigation and harvesting practices. They can also contribute towards increasing their income, as well as national growth,” he said, adding: “Food security is being negatively impacted by the climate changes such as the prevailing heatwave that has devastated the crops, fruits and vegetables yields for all the farmers alike across the country.”

“Using the information available through digital resources and deploying climate efficient technologies powered by smart agricultural data will help these farmers combat these challenges, while ensure that they can maximise their yields and sell them at better prices,” he said.

For Bhandara, Digital Hujra has received global traction, including coverage by both national and global media, making it a highly recognisable name in the food security and agriculture community.

It has been quoted as a success case study from Pakistan, he said, adding: “Digital Dera programme is a transformation and inclusion model for uplifting remote rural communities, which comprised small and marginalised farmers, youth, and women communities.”

Digital Hujra brings together several solutions that power many such new opportunities, i.e., in the field of e-health, online education, mobility, local clean energy production, whereas the ‘smart’ also implies cooperation and developing of new alliances, i.e., between the farmers and other rural actors; between small municipalities; the private sector, civil society, connecting with world through the internet and find a path to prosperity and sustainability.

Rehmat Khan, a local farmer told BOL News that it’s a great initiative and will help the rural youth to stay at their villages and use latest technology to reform the old farming business of their forefathers.

“Now, they will learn the latest agricultural opportunities, as well as help their parents improve their yields and increase their incomes,” he added.

Haleem Asad, a journalist based in Lower Dir told BOL News that this is an excellent approach, attracting the youth to modern farming through latest technology.

“The name Digital Hujra platform will help bring together the youth on a single point agenda of latest modern farming and would lead to social cohesion, which has deteriorated due to the misuse of smartphones and computers,” he added.

Gohar Ali Gohar, another journalist from Malakand Division said that in the past the youth had been attracted towards extremist tendencies and violence, as there were less number of job and economic opportunities. If they start getting such chances of earning and socialising, the violent extremism can be rooted out completely from the society.