ISLAMABAD: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has assured Pakistan that it will continue to play a leading role in transforming the country’s agriculture food systems to make them more efficient, inclusive, sustainable and resilient. This is a challenge that has gained urgency following recent floods that have devastated the country’s agriculture sector.

In Pakistan, the FAO will require massive and sustained investments in climate change adaptation and resilience, especially within the agri-food sectors as this is crucial to ensure better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life for all — the ‘4 Betters’ that are at the core of the FAO Strategic Framework for the next decade, FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said while speaking at the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan, in Geneva on Monday.

The FAO chief said the organisation had also been leading preparations for the agriculture, fisheries and livestock section of the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and has contributed to developing the livelihood component of the UN’s Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Framework (4RF).

Under the 4R framework, at least $4 billion are urgently needed to facilitate the immediate recovery of the agriculture sector, and to lay the foundations for lasting resilience, according to FAO.

To date, organisation has mobilised over $25m, provided 600,000 affected people with seeds, fertilisers

An estimated 4.4 million acres of farmland — enough to cultivate crops for 14.6 million people — were damaged, and more than 800,000 animals perished in the floods.

In all, more than $9 billion in losses were incurred by the agriculture sector. What’s more, over 80 per cent of such losses were absorbed by the crop sub-sector, which means that food production will be compromised in the immediate future without substantial support.

To date, the FAO has mobilised over $25 million and has provided over 600,000 affected people with seeds and fertilisers. In addition, livestock vaccination campaigns have been completed in the Balochistan province and are being finalised in Sindh, while livestock feed distribution will begin shortly.

The FAO’s role in Pakistan includes the provision of technical leadership for the Transforming Indus Basin Initiative, funded by Green Climate Fund.

Through this programme, some 1.3 million people in vulnerable areas of the Indus River basin will see improved yields and increased returns of between 30 and 80 per cent in their production. In all, about 16m people will benefit from the programme, either directly or indirectly, Dongyu explained.

The project will help shift Pakistan and its Indus Basin agriculture from the current situation of high vulnerability toward an alternative paradigm in which better information, water management and farming practices will significantly increase resilience to climate change.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2023