Client Name

Pakistan Agriculture Research (PAR)

Faculty Advisor

Dr. Hassan Mahmood

SBS Thought Leadership Areas

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

SBS Thought Leadership Area Justification

We classify our Experiential Learning Project (ELP) under the broader thought leadership area of "Entrepreneurship and Innovation." While the project may not directly deal with business creation or traditional entrepreneurial ventures, it embodies the core spirit of innovation by using data-driven methods to address a pressing national challenge—future food security in Pakistan.

Our work involved forecasting Pakistan’s population and food production trends until 2050, identifying potential mismatches between nutritional needs and food availability, and developing practical, policy-level solutions to bridge these gaps. The very approach of anticipating long-term resource shortages and proposing forward-looking solutions reflects a mindset rooted in innovation and strategic thinking. By integrating agriculture, data science, sustainability, and public policy, we ventured beyond conventional academic boundaries to tackle a real-world issue creatively and responsibly.

The outcomes of our project have strong implications for the area of entrepreneurship and innovation. Firstly, they open up opportunities for agribusiness innovation—whether through improving crop yields, investing in alternative protein sources, or introducing sustainable farming technologies. Secondly, they highlight the need for policy entrepreneurship, where innovative, data-backed policies can reshape food systems and resource planning for the better. Lastly, the work encourages interdisciplinary innovation, combining economics, public policy, and environmental science to drive sustainable development.

In essence, the project cultivates the same thinking that entrepreneurship and innovation demand: identifying a future problem, developing a novel solution, and delivering impact through informed, creative action.

Aligned SDGs

GOAL 2: Zero Hunger

Aligned SDGs Justification

The SDG of zero hunger aligns well with our project, as we have actively worked and researched on ways that the government can implement policies that may avert the future crisis of malnutrition in Pakistan. This is coupled by food demand and the growing population, as at 2050.

NDA

No

Abstract

Pakistan’s population is ever-increasing and is expected to exceed 400 million by 2050. (Ali, 2024) This has several serious implications for the country's socioeconomic structure and key resources, including food. We collaborated with Pakistan Agriculture Research for this project to assess the food resource situation for the forecasted population in 2050. The main purpose of this study is to forecast the growing population and food production along with whether or not will we able to sustain our population with the forecasted food produced. Incorporating a quantitative approach, the study attempts to forecast key variables such as population and food production, which includes all major, minor, and livestock products that are used in the daily meals of the people of Pakistan. Multiple machine learning, time series forecasting and demographic models were used to generate robust and interpretable forecasts during this study.

The data for this research was collected from a combination of national and international research sources. The major sources used were United Nations, World Health Organization, Food and Agricultural Organization, Pakistan Bureau Statistic, and Pakistan Agriculture Research. This study highlights that even though the food production will increase in upcoming years up till 2050, the population and the nutritional demand is forecasted to increase substantially, suggesting that there will be a shortfall in the supply of the nutritional resources in Pakistan compared to the nutritional demand in 2050. This observation gives rise to the multiple implications and new policies such as nutrition-focused agricultural policy which promotes food production not just for the sheer volume but also for it’s nutrient diversity, and the Minimum Sales Price Policy for the farmers to promote agriculture in the country.

Document Type

Restricted Access

Document Name for Citation

Experiential Learning Project

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