Jawwad and Salar

AgriLift and FFC agri-tech executives

Compiled from 1 recorded interview. Every statement below is drawn from the passage cited beside it.

Jawwad and Salar are Jawwad Hasan, CEO and co-founder of AgriLift, and Salar Malik, Chief Innovation and Sustainability Officer at FFC. AgriLift is a product company by design, and it builds technology that FFC's team takes to farmers on the ground.

Early life and education

Jawwad describes himself as a proud Karachiite. He did his early schooling in Karachi and his undergraduate degree in the UK. He says he and others were backbenchers at school. [1]

Salar describes himself as a military child who travelled across the country while growing up. He was born in Karachi, but says he is predominantly from a village near Faisalabad, where his roots remain. He keeps a subtle connection to land near his village, although he says he has never farmed himself. [1]

Career

In 2008 Jawwad moved to Dubai to work with PwC, where he worked on consulting, audit and transactions. He then spent about eight years at EY (Ernst & Young). He was also seconded to a client where the largest water utility in Ireland was set up. [1]

Jawwad also worked as portfolio value creation manager and general manager across a group, with a principal focus on creating value for shareholders. He says that when looking at long-term strategy, everything boiled down to farm economics. Jawwad and his co-founder began looking into the agriculture industry together. [1]

Salar served in the military for some time before leaving. He joined FFC about six years ago, first in a strategy role. He then moved from FFC's strategy team into its sustainability and innovation department, and he says his job is to make sure farmers adopt the tools AgriLift brings. [1]

AgriLift

Jawwad says the team spent a few years on research, built a solution and validated the platform in the last year or so. AgriLift is a product company with a service arm for now, and its core focus is on the farm. He says the team followed farmers from seed to harvest and brought its data tools together into one platform. [1]

Jawwad says AgriLift does not yet give the platform directly to farmers. It attached an agronomist to explain insights to farmers in plain language. Its go-to model is B2B, working with companies and partners that have large farmer networks. AgriLift also works with agribusinesses to raise productivity and add traceability to supply-chain decisions. [1]

AgriLift was incubated inside another company. Jawwad says it received early help, including a pre-seed check, bench resources and office space. He says AgriLift was bootstrapped by design, and that it wants to reduce its reliance on external funding. He also says the CEO of National Foods played a major role in supporting AgriLift. [1]

Jawwad says AgriLift is at pre-Series A and has already proven product-market fit. He says it has proven its revenue and business models and is now looking to scale. AgriLift soft-launched its MVP in the year before he spoke, according to Jawwad. [1]

Jawwad says AgriLift has 85 people in total, and works with seven or eight companies in Pakistan and some direct farmers as test cases. It monitors more than 30,000 acres through its teams and works in about 25 locations. AgriLift runs a hub-and-spoke model with small hubs in key farming areas. [1]

Jawwad says AgriLift set up its own soil lab in the previous year with USAID sponsorship. It flies drones over its farms every week. He says AgriLift recorded 40,000 farm events in the Rabi season alone and processed 1.5 petabytes of data in the same season. [1]

According to Jawwad, AgriLift's engagements started as paid pilots and are moving into partners' ecosystems. He says AgriLift gets many direct inquiries from farmers. Farms in its Rabi clusters posted higher yields than farms outside them, and farmers in those clusters also made higher profits. He notes that fragmented land ownership means a 30-acre farm is never in one place, and that AgriLift will need to control its hub-and-spoke model and last-mile gap for the first two or three years. [1]

FFC

Salar says FFC has about 4.3 million tons of production capacity and is the country's biggest fertilizer maker. He says FFC runs five labs and does hundreds of thousands of soil tests a year for farmers at no cost. FFC works with about 3,180 to 3,200 dealers in Pakistan and now runs about 100 stores across the country. Salar says FFC is moving from business-to-business to business-to-consumer sales. [1]

Salar says FFC makes money only when someone buys its product, and that it feels a moral responsibility, being the biggest in the country, to be part of this effort. He says FFC has started talks with the State Bank of Pakistan and its own bank, Askari Bank. According to Salar, FFC does not build the technology itself and depends on AgriLift for it. Jawwad says FFC and other companies with farmer networks are channels for AgriLift. Salar says FFC's team is expected to run the last-mile service in future. [1]

Views

Jawwad says farmers are the smartest businessmen he has seen and that a farmer's decision is rooted in return on investment. He says Pakistan has raw talent and opportunity across sectors, including agriculture. He believes AgriLift can grow in Pakistan and help the wider industry and economy over the long term. [1]

Jawwad says AgriLift's vision is to become second nature in farming. He says he wants AgriLift to be the biggest success story from Pakistan, and wants its hub-and-spoke model replicated around the world. He also wants AgriLift to be a global success and Pakistan's biggest tech success, and wants to see a happy, prosperous Pakistan that matters in global decision making. [1]

Salar says fertilizer without farmer buying power would stay on the shelf. He says the government's decision to free wheat prices from control is a very crucial first step, and that the aarhti system does a very important job for farmers. He expects farmer adoption to take about three years. [1]

Salar says Pakistan is the innovation lab before the product goes international, and that it will be deployed in Pakistan first and then taken abroad. He says Pakistan has the mindset and capability to do wonderful things. He links Pakistan's investment in assets, compared with the US investment in people, to entrepreneurship, and describes himself as a natural optimist. [1]

Timeline

2008
Jawwad moved to Dubai to work with PwC.[1]

Appearances

DateTitleWhere
2025-09-24 Pakistan can add $9.8 billion to agri exports — without leaving home Thought Behind Things

Frequently asked questions

Who is Jawwad and Salar?

Jawwad and Salar are Jawwad Hasan and Salar Malik. Jawwad is CEO and co-founder of AgriLift, and Salar is Chief Innovation and Sustainability Officer at FFC. AgriLift builds technology that FFC's team takes to farmers on the ground.[1]

What does Jawwad and Salar do?

Jawwad runs AgriLift as CEO and co-founder, and Salar holds the title of Chief Innovation and Sustainability Officer at FFC. Jawwad says AgriLift is a product company by design. Salar says his job is to make sure farmers adopt the tools AgriLift brings.[1]

Where is Jawwad and Salar from?

Jawwad describes himself as a proud Karachiite and did his early schooling in Karachi. Salar was born in Karachi, and says he is predominantly from a village near Faisalabad, where his roots remain.[1]

What is AgriLift?

AgriLift is a product company with a service arm for now, and its core focus is on the farm. Jawwad says its go-to model is B2B, working with companies and partners that have large farmer networks. It runs a hub-and-spoke model with small hubs in key farming areas.[1]

How big is AgriLift?

Jawwad says AgriLift has 85 people in total. It monitors more than 30,000 acres through its teams and works in about 25 locations.[1]

What did Jawwad do before AgriLift?

In 2008 Jawwad moved to Dubai to work with PwC, and he then spent about eight years at EY (Ernst & Young). He also worked as portfolio value creation manager and general manager across a group.[1]

References

  1. Pakistan can add $9.8 billion to agri exports — without leaving home . Thought Behind Things , 2025-09-24.
Show the source passages (85 statements)
  1. Jawwad Hasan is CEO and co-founder of AgriLift. Jawwad Hasan, CEO & co-founder of Agrilift
  2. Salar Malik is Chief Innovation and Sustainability Officer at FFC. Salar Malik, Chief Innovation & Sustainability Officer at FFC.
  3. Jawwad describes himself as a proud Karachiite. I'm a proud Karachiite through and through.
  4. Jawwad did his early schooling in Karachi. Did all my early schooling in Karachi
  5. Jawwad did his undergraduate degree in the UK. So I did my undergrad from the UK.
  6. Jawwad moved to Dubai to work with PwC in 2008. in 2008, I moved to Dubai with PWC.
  7. At PwC, Jawwad worked on consulting, audit and transactions. wahan pe thoda consultancy ki, thoda audit kiya, thoda transactions kiye
  8. Jawwad then spent about eight years at EY (Ernst & Young). spent about another eight years there with a company called EY, Ernst & Young.
  9. Jawwad was seconded to a client where the largest water utility in Ireland was set up. got seconded to a client where we set up the largest water utility in the country, um, in Ireland.
  10. Jawwad worked as portfolio value creation manager and general manager across a group, with a principal focus on creating value for shareholders. worked as the portfolio value creation manager, uh, general manager across the group where the principal focus was to create value for the shareholders
  11. Jawwad says that when looking at long-term strategy, everything boiled down to farm economics. when we used to look at long-term strategy, uh, when we used to look at where the business needs to go over the next 10, 15, 20, 30 years, um, everything used to boil down to farm economics.
  12. Jawwad and his co-founder began looking into the agriculture industry together. that's where myself and Murad, who's my co-founder, got talking together. We started looking into the industry.
  13. Jawwad says the team spent a few years on research, built a solution and validated the platform in the last year or so. Um, spent a few years doing research, uh, looked at problems, built the solution around the problem, um, and then the last year or so we validated, uh, the platform as well.
  14. Jawwad says AgriLift is a product company by design. by design we are a product company.
  15. Jawwad says AgriLift's go-to model is B2B, working with companies and partners that have large farmer networks. our go-to model is a B2B model where we work with companies and partners that have an extensive farmer network.
  16. AgriLift also works with agribusinesses to raise productivity and add traceability to supply-chain decisions. we also work with agri-businesses to help them increase productivity and also create that traceability angle for supply chain decision making.
  17. Jawwad says AgriLift has 85 people in total. So in total as a company we have 85 people right now.
  18. Jawwad says AgriLift monitors more than 30,000 acres through its teams. We're monitoring about more than 30,000 acres which is more than the size of San Francisco uh through the teams.
  19. Jawwad says AgriLift works in about 25 locations. Uh we're in about 25 different locations.
  20. Jawwad says AgriLift's engagements started as paid pilots and are moving into partners' ecosystems. These are all paid uh uh started off with being paid pilots which are now progressing into embedding ourselves into the ecosystem of these players.
  21. AgriLift was incubated inside another company. we incubated AgriLift in a company called 10X.
  22. Jawwad says AgriLift received early help, including a pre-seed check, bench resources and office space. we got that initial help like the pre-seed check, the bench resources, um the office space
  23. Jawwad says AgriLift is at pre-Series A and has already proven product-market fit. Ab humne pre-series A pe aaj khade hue hain apne, which we call growth uh and let's say even proving um because we've already proven product market fit.
  24. Jawwad says AgriLift has proven its revenue and business models and is now looking to scale. Um because we've proven the revenue model, we've proven the business model, we're now looking to scale and growth.
  25. Jawwad says AgriLift wants to reduce its reliance on external funding. as quickly get up on our feet as possible and reduce the reliance from external funding.
  26. Jawwad says AgriLift was bootstrapped by design. bootstrap humne kiya by design.
  27. Jawwad says FFC and other companies with farmer networks are channels for AgriLift. FFC, all the other players who have a farmer network, they're all channels for us.
  28. Jawwad says the CEO of National Foods played a major role in supporting AgriLift. Abrar Hassan who is the CEO of National Foods um played a huge role in supporting us.
  29. Jawwad says AgriLift soft-launched its MVP last year. when we were launching the MVP at the the soft launch let's say jo humne kiya pichle saal
  30. Jawwad says AgriLift works with seven or eight companies in Pakistan and some direct farmers as test cases. we're working with now seven or eight different companies in Pakistan and some direct farmer as well uh as test cases.
  31. AgriLift runs a hub-and-spoke model with small hubs in key farming areas. humne ek hub and spoke model setup kiya jisme humne around let's say ab toh mashallah we are at about 25 different places in the country.
  32. Jawwad says AgriLift set up its own soil lab last year with USAID sponsorship. So we were sponsored by USAID last year um and we set up our own soil lab
  33. Jawwad says AgriLift flies drones over its farms every week. we do weekly let's say drone flights on the farm.
  34. Jawwad says the team brought its data tools together into one platform. we had kind of brought it together into one platform which we call FarmLink.
  35. Jawwad says the team followed farmers from seed to harvest. So seed se leke harvest tak we started following farmers.
  36. Jawwad says AgriLift's core focus is on the farm for now. Um hamara core focus jo hai woh abhi on farm hai.
  37. Jawwad says fragmented land ownership means a 30-acre farm is never in one place. Because there's fragmented land ownership, woh 30 acres kabhi bhi ek jagah pe nahi hote.
  38. Jawwad says AgriLift does not yet give the platform directly to farmers. we don't want to give the platform to the farmers today.
  39. Jawwad says AgriLift is a product company with a service arm for now. the design choice right now is that we are a product company with a service arm
  40. Jawwad says AgriLift attached an agronomist to explain insights to farmers in plain language. humne ek agronomist ko bhi attach kar diya wahan pe ke asaan zaban mein ja ke farmer ko samjhao
  41. Jawwad says farmers are the smartest businessmen he has seen. And they are actually the smartest businessmen that I've ever seen.
  42. Jawwad says a farmer's decision is rooted in return on investment. woh jo bhi decision lega na woh it's rooted in ROI.
  43. Jawwad says AgriLift gets many direct inquiries from farmers. Uh hamare paas direct inquiries bahut aati hain.
  44. Jawwad says farms in AgriLift's Rabi clusters posted higher yields than farms outside them. jin clusters mein hum log the versus jin mein hum log nahi the ya jin farms pe hum log the aur jin farms pe nahi the, we posted higher yields over there.
  45. Jawwad says farmers in AgriLift's Rabi clusters also made higher profits. Uh we posted also higher profits for farmers
  46. Jawwad says AgriLift will need to control its hub-and-spoke model and last-mile gap for the first two or three years. first two, three years we will have to control that hub and spoke model and that last mile gap because this is something that has never happened before.
  47. Jawwad says AgriLift recorded 40,000 farm events in the Rabi season alone. we've recorded 40,000 farm events just in Rabi alone
  48. Jawwad says AgriLift processed 1.5 petabytes of data in the Rabi season. humne 1.5 petabyte data process kiya hai. Um 25 million images have been have gone through the platform.
  49. Jawwad believes AgriLift can grow in Pakistan and help the wider industry and economy over the long term. I think this can actually grow in Pakistan and this could be a long-term thing that can actually on a macro level um help the overall industry and economy.
  50. Jawwad says AgriLift's vision is to become second nature in farming. it is to become second nature in farming.
  51. Jawwad says he wants AgriLift to be the biggest success story from Pakistan. I want this to be the biggest success story coming out of Pakistan, number one.
  52. Jawwad says he wants AgriLift's hub-and-spoke model replicated around the world. I want us the hub and spoke model that we've developed, I want it to be replicated around the world.
  53. Jawwad says he wants AgriLift to be a global success and Pakistan's biggest tech success. I want obviously Agrilift to be a global success story and want it to be the biggest tech success coming out of Pakistan.
  54. Jawwad says he wants to see a happy, prosperous Pakistan that matters in global decision making. I want to see a very happy and prosperous Pakistan where it has relevance to global um uh decision making that's happening.
  55. Jawwad says Pakistan has raw talent and opportunity across sectors, including agriculture. I feel the raw talent over here, the opportunity in terms of just look cross sectors, minerals, you look at agriculture
  56. Jawwad says he and others were backbenchers at school. we were backbenchers in school.
  57. Salar describes himself as a military child who travelled across the country. I was a military brat through and through. Uh, traveled throughout the of course country while I was growing up.
  58. Salar was born in Karachi. I was also born in Karachi.
  59. Salar says he is predominantly from a village near Faisalabad, where his roots remain. predominantly I'm from a village, uh, from a village near Faisalabad and my roots are still there.
  60. Salar says he keeps a subtle connection to land near his village. So I have that very subtle connection to the lands, if you will.
  61. Salar says he has never farmed himself. I have never done farming myself.
  62. Salar served in the military for some time before leaving. I was in the military for some time, then I left and it's been about six years that I joined FFC.
  63. Salar joined FFC about six years ago, first in a strategy role. it's been about six years that I joined FFC. Uh, I joined in the strategy role.
  64. Salar moved from FFC's strategy team into its sustainability and innovation department. we made this sustainability and innovation department aur us mein main move kiya.
  65. Salar says FFC has about 4.3 million tons of production capacity and is the country's biggest fertilizer maker. with about 4.3 million tons of production capacity is the biggest fertilizer manufacturer in the country.
  66. Salar says fertilizer without farmer buying power would stay on the shelf. Agar farmer ke paas capacity nahi hai khareedne ki, so that product is just going to rely on the shelf, it's never going to sell.
  67. Salar says FFC feels a moral responsibility, being the biggest in the country, to be part of this effort. we have a moral responsibility being the biggest in the country to be a part of this.
  68. Salar says FFC runs five labs and does hundreds of thousands of soil tests a year for farmers at no cost. we have five labs in the country and we do hundreds of thousands of soil tests every year for the farmers free of cost.
  69. Salar says FFC has started talks with the State Bank of Pakistan and its own bank, Askari Bank. We have already started discussions with the State Bank of Pakistan with our own uh hamara apna bank hai Askari Bank.
  70. Salar says the government's decision to free wheat prices from control is a very crucial first step. Now I think that is a very crucial first step that now Alhamdulillah we have taken.
  71. Salar says the aarhti system does a very important job for farmers. Aarhti is doing a very important job.
  72. Salar says FFC works with about 3,180 to 3,200 dealers in Pakistan. Hamare is waqt 3,180 ya 3,200 dealers hain Pakistan mein.
  73. Salar says FFC now runs about 100 stores across the country. We have 100 stores across the country by the name of Sona. centers.
  74. Salar says FFC is moving from business-to-business to business-to-consumer sales. So we are actually going from B to C now.
  75. Salar says FFC makes money only when someone buys its product. we in FFC only make money when someone buys from me.
  76. Salar says FFC does not build the technology itself and depends on AgriLift for it. Um, we don't know tech. I mean, I'll put my hand up.
  77. Salar says AgriLift builds the technology, and FFC's team takes it to farmers on the ground. They make a thing, they throw it to us, the people go along with their agronomist, our team go on the ground.
  78. Salar says Pakistan is the innovation lab before the product goes international. So we're looking big, but starting like he said, Pakistan is the innovation lab.
  79. Salar says FFC's team is expected to run the last-mile service in future. Tomorrow it will be FFC's team who will be running that last mile gap.
  80. Salar says his job is to make sure farmers adopt the tools AgriLift brings. My job is to make sure ki when he brings that, you know, gizmo to the farmer, I make sure ki farmer adopts it.
  81. Salar says he expects farmer adoption to take about three years. I don't even think it's a five-year set, I think it's a three-year journey.
  82. Salar says the product will be deployed in Pakistan first, then taken abroad. We are going to deploy it here first, do the success for our farmers, and then of course take it abroad
  83. Salar says Pakistan has the mindset and capability to do wonderful things. We have the mindset, we have the capability.
  84. Salar describes himself as a natural optimist. I'm a natural optimist, you know.
  85. Salar says Pakistan invests in assets while the US invests in people, which he links to entrepreneurship. we as as a nation like investing in assets. But if you look at the US, they like investing in people.