Executive Summary

A 125 Acre Plot of desert land will be converted into a highly efficient system of Drip Irrigation and
Rain Gun plots. Cost for this project (Capital Expenditure + Operational Expenditure) is estimated at
PKR 154,234,125. By deploying this project in the area of Dhandi Azimabad, this desert region will be
converted into a lush green landscape while will generate annual revenues of 222,720,000 and
retained earnings of 170,225,075

Agriculture in Bannu
Bannu is a scenic southern district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province; flanked and guarded on all
sides by the hard and dried mountain ranges of Koh-e-Safed and Koh-e-Sulaiman.

It is located approximately 190 kilometers south of Peshawar, 120 kilometers south-west of Kohat
and 140 kilometers north of Dera Ismail Khan. It lies in the heart of southern region with its
boundaries touching districts of Karak, Lakki Marwat and the North, and South Waziristan Agencies.
The Kurrum River and Gambila or Tochi River run down from the hills of Waziristan and make it a
land of meadows, crops and orchards. Every kind of crop and fruit can be grown in Bannu, but the
bananas, dates, figs and rice are unique in their taste, shape and size.

Even though Bannu is an oasis in a harsh landscape when it comes to agriculture, it has been left
behind when it comes to the latest in agricultural practices and technologies. The latest innovation
in Bannu is the solarization of Tubewell, which is now becoming a double-edged sword. Providing
much-needed irrigation at no operational cost but it is leading to concerns by environmentalists all
over Pakistan, with aquifers being heavily exploited in the country.

Agriculture in Pakistan
Pakistani agriculture is evolving through a mix of traditional practices and modern trends, influenced
by economic, technological, and environmental factors. Here’s a summary of key practices and
emerging trends:

Traditional Practices

1. Irrigation: Pakistan's agriculture heavily relies on the Indus River system, with an extensive
canal irrigation network. However, water scarcity is a growing concern due to overuse and
inefficient practices. Strip-farming has been extensively practiced for decades, essentially
depleting the organic matter in the soil and reducing the soil’s ability to retain moisture
2. Crop Diversity: Traditional cropping systems involve growing a mix of food crops like wheat,
rice, and maize, along with cash crops such as cotton and sugarcane.

3. Livestock: Livestock farming plays a significant role, particularly for milk, meat, and wool
production. Farmers practice mixed farming, integrating livestock with crop cultivation.

4. Labour: Agriculture in Pakistan remains labour-intensive, with small family farms relying on
manual labour or simple machinery for land preparation and harvesting.

Emerging Trends

1. Modernization and Mechanization: The use of tractors, harvesters, and other machinery is
on the rise, increasing efficiency and reducing labor dependency. Mechanized irrigation
systems like drip and sprinkler irrigation are being introduced to conserve water.
 2. Precision Agriculture: With the advent of technology, precision farming techniques like
satellite mapping, drones, and soil sensors are helping farmers optimize resource use and
boost productivity.
3. Climate-Resilient Crops: Due to the increasing impacts of climate change, farmers are
adopting drought-tolerant crop varieties and shifting planting schedules to cope with erratic
weather patterns.

4. Agricultural Policy and Support: The government is focusing on agricultural reforms,

including subsidies for inputs, support for high-value crops, and improvements in rural
infrastructure, such as roads and storage facilities.

In conclusion, while traditional methods dominate Pakistani agriculture, modernization efforts are
underway to address challenges like water scarcity, climate change, and increasing food demand.

Problem Statement
Traditional Agricultural Practices are not climate-resilient and will lead to falling in agricultural
productivity in Bannu

Objective/Solution
Deploy climate-resilient agricultural system in the region of Dhandi, Azimabad, Bannu and

Deploy
Community is contributing close to a 1000 Kanals (125 Acres of land) to this project. Our plan is to
deploy a mix of rain gun and drip irrigation systems on 125 acres initially with a large water storage
(404’ x 40’ or 6810286.56 liters). After first full year of operation, use the irrigation and water storage
as a centralized fertigation and dosing system and extend it further to the community through a
partnership instrument that ensures scalability, affordability and impact. By deploying this as a
centralized instrument, water table depletion would be avoided and added engineering and capital
expenditure would be avoided.

Partnership Instrument
After first successfully deploying this project, a scaleup model can also be proposed.
For this to scale impact, the community needs to be involved even further. Due to generations of low
ROI, the farming community is very apprehensive when it comes to the “next big thing”. They believe
in results, instead of hype.
The first year of operation would be to dedicated to showing how efficient and productive these
production systems can be. The second year of operation would be dedicated to extending the
facility further by asking members of the community to add their own acreages to further scale
impact.
For those community members who would like to deploy their own setups, a connection can be
derived from the main storage unit, with enough head pressure to ensure their lands can be added
to the network, reducing the cost of solarization and ensuring excess solarization does not devastate
the already fragile water table. A markup rate, similar to ZTBL’s policy of 7%, would be added to the
project cost of those beneficiaries that would like to be added to the network.

Each farmer would receive the following

 • Connection to irrigation network
• Fertigation support
• Crop-Advisory
• Agrochemicals and Input Support
• Seedlings (where applicable)

Instead of asking for cash repayment, the farmers can be providing in-kind repayment, through
crops, allowing the project to generate revenue and scale its impact even further

Farmer Responsibility Network Responsibility

• Labor • Irrigation, Filtration and Supply
• Irrigation System Design
• Fertigation
• Agronomic Practices

How do we scale and grow our impact?

The Project deploys

system and provides
input for farmer

The Project then sells Farmer receives

the crop at the right hand-holding
time to ensure crops support throughout
maximum revenue, their growing cycle
reinvesting revenue (from agronomic to
for further crop planning and
deployment marketing)

Farmer repays crop

Farmers sucessful
by providing in-kind
grows and markets
repayment by
crop
providing crops

Real World example of Climate Resilience in a space similar to Dhandi

How Saudi Arabia is turning its huge desert into arable land

Northern Saudi Arabia hosts some of the most extensive sand and gravel deserts in the world, but
modern agriculture has changed the face of some of them. Shifting sands continued encroaching on
farmland and villages, the lack of efficient groundwater irrigation distribution and drainage resulted
in increasing soil salinity and waterlogging, and economic and social changes, regional and national,
brought about by the oil boom.

As recently as 1986, there was little to no agricultural activity in the Wadi As-Sirhan Basin. But over
the past 26 years, agricultural fields have been steadily developed, largely as a result of the
investment of oil industry revenues by the Saudi government. Crops grown in the area include fruits,
vegetables, and wheat.

Although most of Saudi Arabia’s terrain is desert, the kingdom is “greening” its landscape by
introducing various new technologies, changing its farming practices, and increasing the amount of
vegetation under the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI).

Saudi Arabia has transformed large desert areas into farmland using advanced technologies. The
country has implemented major irrigation projects and large-scale mechanization to add previously
barren areas to the stock of cultivatable land.

One of the main strategies that Saudi Arabia has adopted to overcome the water scarcity problem is
the use of desalinated seawater for irrigation. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest producer of
desalinated water, with a capacity of over 5 million cubic meters per day. Desalination plants are
located along the coastlines of the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf, and supply water to various
agricultural projects in the inland regions. For example, the Al-Jouf Agricultural Development
Company uses desalinated water to grow wheat, barley, alfalfa, corn, and fruits on more than 62,000
hectares of land in the northern part of the country.

Saudi Arabia has also implemented facilities to treat urban and industrial runoff for agricultural
irrigation. These efforts have helped transform vast tracts of the desert into fertile farmland.

Additionally, the Saudi Green Initiative aims to rehabilitate 40 million hectares of land and restore
the natural greenery, with the target of planting 10 billion trees,” says Saule Mussurova, an academic
researcher in Plant Science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

The project addresses this target by unifying water availability, climate, topography, soil moisture,
and plant habitats. A comprehensive list of vegetation and tried-and-true planting methods is
compiled to ensure optimum and sustainable ecological succession. The approach is to create a
landscape strategy considering global, regional, local, rural, and urban contexts.

As recently as 1986, there was little to no agricultural activity in the Wadi As-Sirhan Basin. But over
the past 26 years, agricultural fields have been steadily developed, largely as a result of the
investment of oil industry revenues by the Saudi government. Crops grown in the area include fruits,
vegetables, and wheat.

The fields are irrigated by water pumped from underground aquifers. That water is distributed in
rotation about a centre point within a circular field—a technique known as center-pivot agriculture.
The approach affords certain benefits compared to traditional surface irrigation, such as better
control of water and fertilizer use. This so-called “precision agriculture” is particularly important in
regions subject to high water loss due to evaporation. By better controlling the amount and timing of
water application, evaporative losses can be minimized.

Activities
• Laser Leveling of 125 Acres of Land (3 weeks)
• Deployment of 404’ x 40’ Water Storage Unit
 • Solarization of Water Source
• Installation of Desalination Water Plant
• Deployment of Precision Nutrition Dosing Systems
• Deployment of 60 Acres of Vegetable Fields (Drip Irrigation Systems)
• Deployment of 60 Acres of Cereal Crop Fields (Raingun systems)
• Deployment of 2.5 Acres of Vegetable Fields (Comparative Analysis with Drip Irrigation
Systems)
• Deployment of 2.5 Acres of Cereal Crop Field (Comparative Analysis with Raingun system)
• Deployment of 1 Seedling Greenhouse for Vegetables
• Deployment of Portable Soil Monitoring System
• Training of Field Staff on Irrigation Systems Management
• Training of Field Staff on Laser Leveling Systems
• Training of Field Staff on Seedling Preparation for Vegetable Systems

Predicted Outcome

• Achieve water-saving of up to 41% (University of Agriculture Faisalabad benchmark)

• Increase Yields from 28 Mounds from Acre to 40 Mounds from Acre in Wheat
• Reinvestment of yield into communal uplift projects in the surrounding region, accelerating
prosperity within the community

Implementation Parties
Anjuman Behbood-e-Afzal KPK is a prolific NGO that has been active in the region from 1988. It has
worked with the local community of Bannu and the surrounding region, uplifting and educating the
community through various projects centered on education, communal entrepreneurship,
community health etc.…

Aether is an international award-winning agritech organization that specializes in high-yield

agriculture yield through the use of High Efficiency Irrigation Systems (HEIS), precision sensory
systems, Controlled Environment Agriculture Systems and Soilless Hydroponic Systems.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The farming community is a proud and opinionated community who may at times be very adamant
and stubborn when it comes to adapting new techniques and technologies. And the best way for a
community to adopt a new technology or technique is when they are shown the financial viability of
it. To do so, 5 acres have been set aside from the 125 acres which will be grown using a mix of
traditional and modern methods as a comparison point

Our KPIs will be on the following basis

Financial KPIs • Revenue Per Acre

 • Marketable Yield Per Acre
• Time to Breakeven Point
• Operational Expenditure Per Acre
• Loss due to disease pressure
Performance KPIs • Disease Pressure Per Acre
• Amount of Water Deployed Per Acre
• Fruit Yield Per Plant
• Time to Harvest

Community Contribution
The target community will make the following in-kind contribution for this project

Land 125 Acres

Labor Assistance • Trench Digging (26,000’)
• Trench Digging PKR 1,040,000
• Pipeline Deployment • Pipeline Deployment
• On Farm Management (26000’)
o Breakdown Per Acre PKR 400,000
▪ 2 Farm Hands/Acre • Drip Irrigation
▪ Wage Rate@1,000/Labor/Day Deployment (60 Acres)
▪ Total Labor Days@424/Acre PKR 800,000
o Breakdown Over Entire Project • Rain Gun Deployment
▪ 125 Farm Hands (60 Acres)
▪ Total Labor Days@53000 Days/Acre PKR 800,000
• Labor Contribution
PKR 5.3 Million

Opinion • Site Selection

• Crop Selection

Project Timelines
See attached excel sheet for project timelines

Budget and Forecast

Farm Equipment PKR1,3441,000

Tube well, Boring and PKR 8,487,500
Solarization PKR54,976,000
Head Unit and Irrigation Systems PKR 2,334,700
Water Storage PKR 1,500,000
Soil Testing and Monitoring
Equipment
Total PKR 77,739,200
Seed (Vegetable) PKR 3,000,000(PKR 50,000@Acre)
Seed (Hybrid Maize) PKR 2,100,000 (PKR 35,000@Acre)
 Seed (Wheat) PKR 608,400 (PKR 10,140@Acre)
Dakki Date Palm PKR 24,000,000 (PKR 6,000@plant)
Fertilizer (Vegetables) PKR 10,500,000 (PKR 175,000@Acre)
Fertilizer (Maize) PKR 5,591,400 (PKR 93,190@Acre)
Fertilizer (Wheat) PKR 5,400,000 (PKR 90,000@Acre)
Agrochemicals PKR 3,125,000 (PKR 25000@Acre)
Winter Cover PKR 3,600,000 (PKR 60,000@Acre)
Growing Accessories for PKR 5,000,000 (PKR 83,333@Acre)
vegetables (Vegetable Nets, PKR 1,332,000 (PKR 22,200@Acre)
Mulches etc…)
Seedling Media
Total PKR 64,256,800
Land Preparation PKR 478,125
125 Acres (15 Liters of
Diesel@Acre)
Design of Irrigation System PKR 1,500,000
Design and Installation of Solar PKR 1,000,000
System PKR 1,000,000
On-Farm Management Staff
Training
Total PKR 4,500,000
Plant Pathologist PKR 3,000,000
Plant Pathologist PKR 3,000,000
Tractor Driver (2 Drivers@35,000 PKR 840,000
Per Month) PKR 420,000
Delivery Driver (1
Driver@35,000)
Total PKR 7,260,000
Grand Total 154,234,125

Harvest and Yields

Summer Harvest 1,500,000 kg (25,000kg@acre)

Winter Harvest 1,500,000 kg (25,000kg@acre)
Maize Harvest 240,000 kg (4,000kg@acre)
Wheat Yield 120,000 kg (2,000kg@acre)

Predictive Model
YOY Operational Expenditure Change 6%
YOY Vegetable Price Change 5%
YOY Cereal Crops Price Change 5%
YOY Yield Change 6%
Summer Harvest Price Per Kilogram PKR 40/KG
Winter Harvest Price Per Kilogram PKR 80/KG
Maize Price Per Mound (50 Kilogram 7500
Wheat Price Per Mound (50 Kilogram) 2800

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

Summer 60,000,000 66,780,000 74,326,140 82,724,994 92,072,918
Harvest
Winter 120,000,000 133,560,000 148,652,280 165,449,987 184,145,836
Harvest
Maize 36,000,000 40,068,000 44,595,684 49,634,996 55,243,750
Harvest
Wheat 6,720,000 7,479,360 8,324,527 9,265,199 10,312,166.83
Harvest
Total 222,720,000 233,856,000 245,548,800 257,826,240 270,717,552
Revenue
Operational Expenditure
Training 4,500,000 4,770,000 5,056,200 5,359,572 5,681,146

On-Farm 6,000,000 6,360,000 6,741,600 7,146,096 7,574,861

Monitoring
Staff
Seeds and 40,256,800 42,672,208 45,232,540 47,946,492 50,823,282
growing
materials
Drivers 1,260,000 1,335,600 1,415,736 1,500,680 1,590,720
Land Prep 478,125 506,812 537,221 569,454 603,621

Total OpEx 52,494,925 55,644,620 58,983,297 62,522,295 66,273,633

Retained 170,225,075 178,211,380 186,565,503 195,303,945 204,443,919
Earnings