The Agriculture Republic and Internet Society have deployed Pakistan's first 'DIGITAL DERA' as part of the "Digital Agriculture Community Network Project" at a remote village of Pakpattan district. The innovative “Digital Agriculture Community Network Project” is a community Internet network deployed in the agriculture-rich region of Pakpattan in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. The project enables the agriculture and farming community in the target area to access a community wifi network that enables ‘Hyper-Transparency’ including but not limited to access to digital farming resources, learning resources and what the Internet has to offer to the agricultural community powered by IoT.

Agriculture Republic was co-founded by Internet Society members Fouad Riaz Bajwa, a public policy entrepreneurs and Aamer Hayat Bhandara, a progressive farmer, politician and climate change LEAD fellow. As part of the startup's digital innovation efforts for small farmers, Agriculture Republic and the Internet Society has established the country's first 'Digital Dera' at Chak 26-SP in PakPattan. The work is supported by partner organisations including Hayat Farms PakPattan, Accountability Lab (Islamabad/global), and PTCL. Agriculture Republic and Internet Society connected the area to high speed dedicated Internet from a nearby city to the dense rural part of PakPattan. The Internet powered network was deployed by involving local champions from the local rural community who now continue to operate and maintain the network 24/7.

The network supports youth, women and farmers to learn and access latest information and knowledge about digital agriculture, especially smart farming innovations with hands-on capacity building and demonstrations, IoTs, e-commerce, digital and online means to increase crop yields, smart management of farms and promote agriculture products to the world from the heart of the rural centre of the country.

http://www.digitaldera.org

• Pakistan

There is a sister site being established 10 kilometres from the parent site.

The Digital Dera is a physical site where farmers can access e-agriculture support through digital agriculture, precision agriculture, agriculture extension services, data and information about weather, soil, pH and water conditions. These are free, sponsored, funded and also available to farmers for a small subscription charge.

We promote E-agriculture is one of the Action Lines identified in the Geneva Plan of Action of WSIS.