Pakistan’s agriculture sector accounts for around 23 percent of GDP and 36.4 percent of total employment, according to World Bank data for 2022. Innovation in this important sector is central to catalysing its transition towards modern, sustainable agriculture, a process supported by the FAO-led project ‘Developing capacities in agricultural innovation systems: scaling up the Tropical Agriculture Platform Framework’ (TAP-AIS), funded by the European Union.

A new FAO report presents the results of a 2022 assessment of the national agriculture innovation system in Pakistan, based on seven case studies covering product innovation, services innovation and digital transformation, respectively. For example, one product innovation case study described is the ‘Super Seeder’, a tractor-pulled machine used in the rice–wheat system to simultaneously slash rice stubble and sow wheat, thus reducing negative impacts of burning the rice stubble. The study was the first main activity of the TAP-AIS Pakistan project, one of nine similar country projects in Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, implemented by FAO Pakistan in collaboration with the Ministry of National Food Security and Research during 2022–2024. This report profiles the structure, capacity and enabling environment of Pakistan’s agriculture innovation system and identifies major challenges and constraints; several gaps in the innovation system are highlighted: 

• Innovation actors’ have limited ability to initiate collaboration and engage in networking with other stakeholders, for market formation and scaling of innovation. 
• Collaboration was not pursued at all stages of the innovation process, that is, from innovation development to innovation scaling. 
• A supply-driven approach tends to be used rather than a market-driven approach. This limited potential for scaling innovations.  
• The scope for market formation was limited, as most initiatives were limited to innovation development and pilot implementation. 
• The case studies had set budgets for the innovation initiative; implementation and scaling did not continue after the budget was spent. This restricted sustainable implementation of innovations. 

The assessment advised TAP-AIS Pakistan in terms of needs and priorities for organizational capacity development and policy dialogue to strengthen the innovation system for low-cost agricultural machinery, the chosen thematic focus of the project.

You can find the report here.