PESHAWAR, March 1: A two-day national conference on “Natural Resource Management” held here on Thursday asked the government to increase the existing yield of per unit area to cope with the country’s growing food and fibre demand.

To overcome the irrigation water shortage, it was suggested to construct water reservoirs including dams, ponds, rod kohi and develop planes for the effective utilization of available water resources through improved water management system.

The conference, organized by Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (PARD), Peshawar, was attended by researchers, educationists, representatives of various departments from Sindh, Punjab and the NWFP.

The group on balancing food security and ecological concerns pointed out that natural resources, especially agriculture land, forests, water and fisheries, required intensive care to meet the food requirements.

The government should provide agro services to the farming community at their doorstep, encourage private sector to play an active role in agriculture and livestock, develop forest and range land on scientific lines and protect grazing lands. The public and private sectors should include ecological concern in projects and policies.

A group on community based-forest management recommended the reviewing forest policy, developing of a sustainable community-based forest management approach, building capacity of all stakeholders, sensitising and organizing of forest community and adopting strategies to conserve the forest resources.