PASHA’s latest report on AgriTech Frontiers: Scaling Smart Farming in Gilgit-Baltistan – An Implementation Roadmap paints a picture of a region caught between fragility and potential. Gilgit-Baltistan stretches across more than 72,000 km², yet under 3% of that is cultivable, and only about 1% is actively farmed. Out of this narrow base come cherries, apricots, apples, and potatoes whose quality has already reached distant markets. In June 2024, a pilot shipment of six tons of cherries in a refrigerated container reached China, proving that remoteness need not be a permanent barrier. The report positions this not as an anomaly but as a harbinger — with the right investments in technology, infrastructure, and policy, GB can be repositioned from subsistence farming to a hub of climate-smart, export-ready agriculture.
The constraints are set out with unflinching detail. Rugged terrain and weak roads leave farms cut off; landslides and floods regularly erase connectivity. Electricity is patchy, broadband unreliable. Cold storage is almost nonexistent, so perishable crops spoil before they can leave the valley. The growing season is narrow, often a single crop per year, constantly at the mercy of early frosts or missed rains. Farmers, mostly smallholders, are preyed upon by middlemen who dictate farm-gate prices. Literacy and digital skills are limited; many still use basic phones and cannot access advisory services in Urdu or English. Women, who make up a major share of farm labor — mirroring the national statistic that 70% of employed women in Pakistan work in agriculture — are largely excluded from training, finance, and digital tools. Youth out-migrate, draining the talent that might otherwise drive innovation. Regulation has not kept pace either: drones remain tied up in approvals, digital finance lacks clarity, and there is no central coordination body for AgriTech in GB.
But alongside this bleak landscape, the report surfaces evidence of transformation already underway. The Economic Transformation Initiative Gilgit-Baltistan (ETI-GB), backed by IFAD, has irrigated over 50,000 acres of new land and laid down 385 km of farm-to-market roads. The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), active since the 1980s, has pushed tunnel farming, climate-resilient crops, and community-led agribusiness. On the national level, Pakistan has crossed 100 million 3G/4G subscribers, shrinking the digital divide compared to a decade ago, while startups like Farmdar, BaKhabar Kissan, and Crop2X have built scalable platforms that can be extended north. Farmdar alone had mapped more than 120,000 farms across Pakistan by late 2024. BaKhabar Kissan already reaches 11 million farmers through apps, SMS, and voice services. Crop2X’s IoT pilots showed that even smallholders can cut water and seed use by half and still lift yields by 27%, if advisory systems are localized.
The economic arithmetic is powerful. GB produces roughly 5,000 tons of cherries each season in 14 different varieties, and over 100 orchards, plus a packing and cold storage facility, have been certified by China’s customs authority for direct export. Annex B of the report details potential income gains if value addition is scaled: cherries rising from PKR 750,000 to PKR 1.5 million per farm (a 100% increase), apricots from PKR 400,000 to PKR 800,000 (100%), apples from PKR 480,000 to PKR 720,000 (50%), and pears from PKR 147,000 to PKR 262,500 (78%). Even modest interventions — solar drying, grading, packaging, juicing — double incomes in some cases. In Sindh, IoT soil probes combined with localized weather data reduced water use by 37%, fertilizer and pesticide by 27%, while boosting yields by 27%. If such margins can be achieved in GB, where land is scarce and fragility is high, the impact would be outsized.
What the report argues is that transformation cannot come from technology in isolation. Infrastructure must mean not only roads but refrigerated trucks and modular cold rooms powered by solar. Digital marketplaces must integrate farmers directly with buyers in cities and abroad, bypassing exploitative intermediaries. Skills and literacy must be built through community digital hubs modeled on Punjab’s Digital Dera — centers where farmers can receive training, internet access, and advice in Shina, Burushaski, or Balti. Local champions — respected farmers who test early technologies — can serve as role models, while women’s groups and youth-led cooperatives anchor adoption. Without inclusion, the region’s workforce remains cut in half.
Financing is framed as the keystone. Traditional banks rarely operate in remote valleys, but blended finance models — combining donor funds, government guarantees, and private capital — can de-risk loans to farmer cooperatives. Crop insurance tied to satellite or weather data can give farmers the confidence to invest in inputs. Outcome-based financing, where investors are repaid only if yields or incomes rise, ties money to measurable results and attracts impact capital. Donor-backed venture funding can encourage startups to expand into GB, knowing risk is shared.
The report leans on case studies as evidence that these are not hypotheticals. Farmdar’s remote sensing can monitor crop health across terraced fields. BaKhabar Kissan’s advisory network can be tailored to GB’s high-altitude crops. Crop2X shows that IoT adoption is possible even among older farmers when benefits are clear. Tazah’s digital marketplace highlights the need to pair e-commerce with logistics and finance. Digital Dera in Punjab proves that community-led access centers can overcome both connectivity and literacy gaps. The report argues that the fragments of success are already scattered across Pakistan; Gilgit-Baltistan must assemble them into a coherent ecosystem.
Policy reform is the final layer. Approvals for drones and biotech must be streamlined, cooperatives recognized, and incubators established in Gilgit or Skardu tied to Karakoram International University. Development partners like the EU and IFAD are signaling readiness to back innovation, while CPEC infrastructure promises to push fiber optics deeper into the mountains. The government already treats food security as part of national security, raising the stakes: in GB, climate adaptation and agriculture are not just about livelihoods but about resilience and sovereignty.
This report leaves behind an urgency. Gilgit-Baltistan’s farming system is fragile; one frost, one flood, one blocked road can erase an entire season’s effort. But fragility can also be a crucible. If cold chains, IoT advisories, blended finance, and inclusive training are scaled, then cherries, apricots, and apples from Hunza and Nagar can command global markets instead of spoiling in storage-less valleys. If Gilgit-Baltistan makes this leap, it will not only feed itself but demonstrate how Pakistan’s most marginal geographies can turn scarcity into strength. The high peaks may long have symbolized isolation, but in this roadmap they become vantage points from which a new model of climate-smart, digitally mediated mountain agriculture could be projected to the world.
Source: AgriTech Frontiers: Scaling Smart Farming in Gilgit-Baltistan – An Implementation Roadmap, P@SHA, May 2025.
P@SHA AgriTech Frontiers Report: From Cherries to Cold Chains in Gilgit-Baltistan
