Pakistan’s agriculture sector still sticks to traditional farming methods, leading to low yields against high costs. There’s a need to adopt the latest tunnel farming methods employed by Chinese farmers, which have changed their agricultural landscape.

Hassan Ali, a PhD scholar from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, said this while speaking to WealthPK.

Hassan said China was helping Pakistan to improve its agriculture and other sectors under the CPEC and Pakistan can take tunnel farming to the next level with the help of Chinese institutions and farmers. It is a good way to get the desired products in a controlled environment at affordable rates.

“The Pakistani government must ask Chinese experts to train our students virtually, if not practically, so that they can employ the modern methods in tunnel farming,” he suggested.

Dr Nadeem, an agriculture scientist, said Chinese agricultural experts trained Pakistani farmers in red chili production after which Pakistan exported its first consignment to China last month. 

“As an agrarian economy, Pakistan needs to adopt tunnel farming to enhance the production of vegetables like chili, tomato, water melon, cucumber, bottle gourd, muskmelon, hot pepper, sweet pepper and others,” he said.

Dr Nadeem said temperature remained low in Punjab in December and January, leaving the farmers with no option to cultivate vegetables. So, tunnel farming is the only solution to get the summer vegetables with good production.

“In winter, a tunnel is completely covered with plastic sheet to control the inside temperature. Owing to the controlled temperature, the plants keep growing without any impact of the extreme winter,” he added.

He said tunnel farming had become a game-changer in Pakistan, helping growers to get more profits. “The modern techniques being employed in China have also brought a revolution in our crop production,” he added.

Hassan Ali said last year, China's Tianjin Modern Vocational Technology College inked an MoU with the MNS-University of Agriculture, Multan. Under this agreement, the college would transfer the modern technology to boost Pakistan’s agriculture sector. The latest skills would also be imparted to the local people to increase productivity.

“We need more contracts for all the districts so that our farmers can enhance their work capacity, yield and profits,” he said, adding that without adopting the latest technology, the country could not sustain in future.

Ansar Ali, a progressive farmer, said tunnel farming was effective but it was yet to replace the traditional farming methods. He said high-tunnel agriculture was cheap and effective compared to the traditional farming but the irony was that Pakistani farmers were not well-trained. 

“The biggest benefit of tunnel farming is year-round crop production, enabling growers to cultivate crops by ignoring the seasonal restrictions. The majority of farmers hesitate to adopt tunnel farming due to the high cost of infrastructure. With tunnel farming, you need no extra effort and care to maintain your fields,” he said.

Dr Nadeem said youth seemed unready to adopt agriculture as their career. In such circumstances, indoor farming was the only solution to meet the growing demand of food.

“Tunnel farming, aka indoor farming, is an essential feature of the future. And China is promoting indoor farming at a fast pace,” he added.