PAKISTAN`S ability to protect its food security will increasingly depend on enabling farmers to make better and more timely decisions at critical stages of crop production, said Zeeshan Baig, Country General Manager, Syngenta Pakistan, while speaking at the Pakistan AgricultureCoalition`sAgri-Connections 2026 conference in Lahore.

Zeeshan Baig said that while emerging technologies have significant potential to transform agriculture, their real value lies in helping farmers address practical decisions they face every day, from when to sow and irrigate to how quickly they identify and respond to pest and disease threats.

Illustrating what he described as the `moments that matter` in agriculture, he shared the example of Shakeel, a cotton farmer from interior Sindh who spotted signs of an insect infestation in his crop but was unable to obtain technical assistance in time. By the time support became available, the infestation had spread and resulted in losses of around Rs1.8 million.

He contrasted the experience with the farmer`s ability today to use a smartphone-based crop diagnostic application to photograph an affected plant, identify the problem and obtain timely guidance, demonstrating how relatively simple technology can improve decision-making at the point when intervention matters most. •