Pakistan’s agriculture sector plays a central role in the economy of the country, contributing to about 19% in national GDP and absorbing 42.3 percent of labour force in 2018. Pakistan is also prone to natural disasters and reliable information on affected agricultural land and crops is key to ensure the delivery of efficient food security policies. The Ministry of Food Security and Research (MinFSR) requested FAO technical support to improve technical capacities in using geospatial applications to improve the quality of agricultural statistics using remote sensing technologies, within the broader scope of national yield forecasting and food security.

Under the project “Developing E-agriculture applications and knowledge products using innovative ICT Technologies” (TCP/PAK/3704), the land cover map of Punjab province is being updated. The province of Punjab contributes to two-third of the total national agricultural production, leading in major commodities meant for food security in the country. This updated land cover information uses a methodological approach that combines multi-temporal optical and radar data, object-based segmentation, the ISO Land Cover Meta Language (LCML) as well as ground-truth data and machine learning algorithms. It provides more reliable, timely and accurate crop information for province of Punjab.

FAO provides online technical support to national partners using the innovative technologies, training materials for improved land and agricultural monitoring, leveraging the latest technologies to tackle food sustainability and security.