ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R) Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), World Bank, UKaid, CGIAR, CCAFS and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) jointly organized a workshop on “Enabling Institutions and Policies for Climate-Small Agriculture” here at a local hotel in Islamabad.
Addressing on the occasion Acting Chairman of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) Dr. Nadeem Amjad said that climate change is no more a speculation; it is now a reality all around the world.
No one can exactly predict as to how the future climate will be and what resultant consequences will be on all of us especially in the developing countries like Pakistan whose one fifth of GDP depends on Agriculture Sector alone.
He said that no other sector is more vulnerable to climate change than agriculture. Thus it is imperative to develop a climate-smart agriculture country profile in order to feed a growing Pakistan’s population in a sustainable and to adapt the suitable changes in agriculture sector.
Pakistan with a population around 200 million is being represented by around 60% rural population that depends directly or indirectly on agriculture.
He said that Pakistan contributes very little in the green house gases (GHGs) emissions but is among the highest victims of adverse impacts of climate change.
He said the Government is committed to adapt agriculture in various ways by using state of the art climate small technologies, through sustainable natural resource management, especially improved integrated water resource management and creating climate resilient communities.
He further said that we need to find ways to make agriculture resilient so that farmers can adapt to climate change and fluctuating markets.
He said the workshop has laid an important foundation for strengthening the climate smart agricultural approaches in Pakistan.
He said that working together we can make our country food secure on sustainable basis and can meet development goals of our country.
On this occasion Member Food Security and Climate Change, Planning Commission of Pakistan, Dr. Mubarik Ali, CIAT Project Leader Dr. Godefroy Grosjean, Senior Policy Advisor Dr. Shakeel Ahmad Khan and other national and international agriculture and climate policy experts have also shared their views and experience with the participants of the workshop to finalize the strategy.
