Dr Asiya Khan, Associate Professor of Multimedia Communication and intelligent control and SAWiE
R&D Solutions Fund case study
An intelligent advisory system for sustainable cotton crop production
About the project
Cotton plays a critical role in our civilisation, but it is facing a huge challenge for survival as a sustainable crop.
Grown on an area of 33.35 million hectares globally, most cotton farms are smallholdings. The economic value of cotton for the textile and fashion industry is huge. As the 4th largest producer in the world, Pakistan’s major economic crop is cotton. 1.3 million farmers grow it and the sector is key to national employment and foreign exchange earnings.
Climate change has had a severe effect on recent cotton production, from increased attacks by all types of pests as well as more crop diseases.Pakistan also lost almost 50% of cotton crops in 2022 due to heat, drought, and floods. This has placed millions of jobs under threat.
Pakistan has also suffered poor cotton crop yields due to pests and disease attacks, water availability, and increasing costs. A major cost to farmers is buying chemicals to control pests and diseases. The University of Plymouth and SAWiE Ltd aimed to develop a machine learning and AI-based solution for the early detection of major cotton crop diseases, especially cotton leaf curl disease in Pakistan, to positively act on crop management and employment.
Outcomes & Impact
A successful collaborative research partnership between the University of Plymouth, SAWiE Ltd, and MNS University of Agriculture Multan. This project has delivered an intelligent advisory system for cotton crop production that is downloadable as a mobile application that has:
Improved SAWIE’s crop advisory services.
Directly supported over 5000 farmers in crop management to optimise resources for better crop yields.
Reduced quantities of chemicals sprayed, lowering farmers’ costs and improving crops.
Enabled further advocacy of sustainable crop management and cotton production on a widescale across cotton-growing regions in India, Pakistan, Central Asian states and Africa.
Enterprise Solutions Enabled
A mobile app to help farmers with:
cotton crop management
A conference paper publication
Presentation at COP26
Presentation at international food
Security conference
5 interns employed
2 new R&D staff for SAWiE
Academic and business outcomes and impact
Conference paper publication: Goel Biju, Asiya Khan, David Walker, Salman Qadri, Qaim Hassan, Khalid Mahmood and Abdul Hanan. Identification of Cotton Leaf Curl Disease Using CNN and Vision Transformer. Submitted to IntelliSys Conference 7-8 Sept. 2023 Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Two MSc student dissertation projects
Presentation at COP26, Glasgow, 9th November 2021
Knowledge dissemination workshop at the MNS University of Agriculture, Multan (MNSUAM).
SAWIE is advocating sustainable cotton production on a widescale across cotton-growing regions, especially in India, Pakistan, Central Asian states, and Africa
SAWiE hosted 5 internships, now employed and increased R&D team with 2 new staff.
Application to Innovate UK for £300K and other investment being sought.
.Dr Khan was invited as a keynote speaker at the International Conference on Food Security and Value Chain Improvement under the Belt & Road Initiative in Multan, Pakistan December, 2022.
About SAWiE
SAWiE is a digital agricultural platform whose core objective is to empower farmers, enhance their income, reduce climate vulnerability, minimise crop losses and foster sustainable production through the implementation of Climate Smart Agriculture and farm traceability practices.
SAWiE's strategic services include a ‘Knowledge Centre’ that equips farmers with the tools, knowledge, and support to make informed decisions, enhance their resilience to climatic challenges, and contribute to the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices.
The platform is equipped with tools to monitor crop management data (weather, climate, crop health conditions) and has the capability to produce early crop yield estimates. Using machine learning, data analytics, and AI applications it helps make appropriate farming decisions, from sowing and harvesting times, seed varieties for field locations, and now early disease detection.
Key Facts:
Established in 2021
Based in Multan, Pakistan
Expertise in crop management
Size: SME (30 Employees)
The Project Team
“This support from the University of Plymouth has helped develop an intelligent monitoring system that will benefit millions of cotton farmers. It will also address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, improve income, end poverty, and address the climate crisis.”
Ms Nosheen Ramzan - Co-founder of SAWiE
In the media
FASHION UNITED
Pakistan could be a global leader in organic cotton production.
SAWiE.net
The 2nd Annual SAWiE Conference on Organic Cotton Pakistan
Plymouth.ac.uk
Helping smallholder cotton farmers to sow the seeds of sustainable cotton production