The Punjab government and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization have launched a new data platform designed to bring climate, water and crop information together in a single system aimed at protecting agriculture from climate shocks and water shortages. The initiative was formalised through the establishment of the Agriculture, Climate and Water Punjab Consortium, created through a memorandum of understanding signed during its first meeting, bringing together several provincial departments alongside international technical support.
The platform is designed to coordinate data drawn from Punjab’s agriculture, irrigation and environment departments, along with the Planning and Development Board and the Punjab Information Technology Board, with the Food and Agriculture Organization providing technical support throughout the process. The initiative focuses particularly on five districts in south Punjab, namely Multan, Khanewal, Lodhran, Muzaffargarh and Dera Ghazi Khan, an area considered especially vulnerable to climate related agricultural disruption. The effort forms part of a broader Food and Agriculture Organization project covering the wider Indus Basin, supported by the Green Climate Fund and co-financed by the provincial governments of both Punjab and Sindh, reflecting the cross provincial scale of the climate resilience effort underway.
As part of the project, twenty four automatic weather stations have already been installed, including fifteen in Punjab and nine in Sindh, alongside systems designed to monitor canal flows, groundwater levels and other climate and agricultural conditions relevant to farming decisions. Data generated through these systems will be fed directly into what is being called the ACWA portal, intended to give government officials a single, unified source of information for planning, policymaking, agricultural advisories and water resource management. Officials involved in the project said the system is intended to replace fragmented and siloed data sources with a single government owned platform as climate risks and water shortages continue to increase across the province.
The consortium will also be responsible for establishing rules governing data sharing, security, licensing and confidentiality among participating departments, with each department expected to determine its own responsibilities for contributing data and maintaining the system going forward. Discussions among consortium members will also cover longer term arrangements for hosting and maintaining the portal once the broader Food and Agriculture Organization project concludes, an issue officials appear keen to resolve early given the platform’s intended role as permanent government infrastructure rather than a temporary project tool.
Planning and Development Board Secretary Rafaqat Ali said that reliable and timely information on climate, agriculture and water resources has become increasingly important for Punjab’s development planning, adding that bringing this information onto a single platform could improve coordination across departments and support better investment and resource management decisions going forward. Food and Agriculture Organization Pakistan Representative James Okoth said the organisation would continue providing technical support to help Punjab develop more resilient agricultural and food systems, and that the consortium is expected to strengthen coordination and evidence based decision making across the province’s climate and agriculture related institutions. The meeting also included a demonstration of the ACWA portal covering its current status, key features and operating capabilities.
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