QUETTA: During her first visit to Balochistan, Australian High Commissioner Margaret Adamson unveiled the Australian Aid Programme (AAP) for Pakistan here on Tuesday at the World Food Programme’s Humanitarian Response Facility.

Speaking on the occasion, she said: “Australia has particularly close links with Balochistan. That’s why I chose this province for my first official visit.

“We have longstanding connection with this part of Pakistan... Both of us have problems with water resources, both of us have strong agriculture and livestock sector and both of us have strong mineral resources to explore and develop.”

She said that since 2009 her country and the World Food Programme Australia had contributed 90 million Australian dollars for food storage facilities in the province.

Talking about the growing nutrition problems in the province, she said: “I have just been launching, together with the World Bank and other international partners, and very importantly a drive by the government of Balochistan a new programme for improving nutrition for little children and for mothers.”

Ms Adamson said that one of her government’s initiatives in Balochistan pertained to its agriculture sector. “We are doing research on seeds and crops that can work well in Balochistan which has problems with its water supply and that of course reaches down to the farmer and farmers’ families.”

She said that more programmes would be launched for the people of Balochistan.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2015

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