Telenor Pakistan Collaborates with LMKT to Provide IBM’s Accurate Weather Forecast to Local Farmers

ISLAMABAD – May 02, 2018: As part of its efforts to transform the Pakistani agriculture sector, a primary source of livelihood for millions of Pakistani households, Telenor Pakistan has partnered with LMKT, an IBM partner, to provide farmers across the country with localized and accurate weather forecasting data. The move looks to improve agricultural practices in Pakistan and educate farmers to help them increase their yields by making informed decisions based on latest weather conditions.

Under the agreement, LMKT will be supporting Telenor’s goals of implementing an accurate weather forecasting solution that will provide daily and hourly weather forecast from a globally recognized platform (The Weather Company, an IBM Business). The partnership will enable Telenor to drive various agronomic advisory services to stakeholders in the agriculture sector through multiple channels including mobile devices. This will empower more than 5 million Khushaal Zamindaar users across Pakistan and farmers being supported by the CAPP (Connected Agriculture Platform Punjab) program in collaboration with Government of Punjab.

“Being Pakistan’s primary digital lifestyle partners with a strong rural presence, and movers of many industry-first initiatives aimed at transformation of Pakistani agricultural sector, we at Telenor know what the sector’s challenges are and how to resolve them effectively,” said Durdana Achakzai, Chief Digital Officer at Telenor Pakistan.

“We are pleased to have partnered with LMKT, a leading technology company specializing in geographic information systems, to deliver accurate weather data to millions of farmers across Pakistan in continuation of our efforts to empower the Pakistani kissan and modernize our agricultural practices,” Durdana continued.

“This agreement with Pakistan’s top telecom and digital services provider, Telenor, underpins LMKT’s continuous efforts towards establishing a highly accurate and standardized weather forecasting system in Pakistan,” said Haroon Sharif, Vice President GIS, Research & Development LMKT.

“We are working closely with different stakeholders including Pakistan Meteorological Department and independent research groups to help various industries that rely on accurate weather forecasting data such as agriculture, renewable energy production and utilities,” Haroon added.

Telenor Pakistan has been working closely with the local governments in Pakistan to empower the country’s farmers through a slew of digital advisory services. In December 2015, Telenor launched Khushal Zamindar, a user-friendly Robocall, IVR and SMS content based mobile agriculture service for small-scale farmers. Following its success and the ratio of female farmers using it, Telenor launched its women-specific version called Khushaal Aangan in December 2017. In March 2018, Telenor collaborated with the Punjab Agriculture Department to launch Connected Agriculture Program for Punjab (CAPP) to improve farmers’ access to information, financial resources, and market.

LMKT is also collaborating with Government of Punjab’s Department of Agriculture (DoA) on a digital farming initiative. The project aims to increase agricultural productivity through sustainable and scalable ICT based facilitation services.

As part of the initiative, LMKT is using its GIS expertise to enable DoA officials to mark farms and register over four million farmers across thirty-six districts of Punjab on a digital map. Technical capacity building, automation of soil analysis labs and consolidation of various data sets will help DoA experts give advice to farmers that is according to their soil, weather and cropping history.

In today’s fast paced world, mobile is the force behind every emerging innovation changing lifestyles. Keeping in mind the challenges that farmers face in Pakistan, mobile technology offers immense potential to bring about a significant improvement in their lives. Hence, mobile agricultural services are becoming increasingly valuable for the agriculture sector.