ISLAMABAD: The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) with the support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has invested more than $4 million in a six-year distance learning initiative to support the government of Pakistan’s efforts to increase agriculture exports. The initiative is aimed at strengthening Pakistan’s ability to comply with international trade rules to increase gross domestic product (GDP) through greater commodity exports. Since 2011, the USDA and partners – Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI)) and Texas A&M University – have teamed up to create a distance learning project to bolster Pakistan’s sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) skills and knowledge. With an interactive workshops supplemented by online training modules, the USDA SPS Distance Learning project is advancing Pakistan’s adoption of international plant and animal health standards by training 30 personnel of the Department of Plant Protection and other Pakistani agriculture sector. The workshops and training modules are focused on a range of topics, including pest-risk management, market access, treatments, and inspections. “Proper regulation of exports and imports is the key to meet demands of foreign buyers as well as protecting Pakistan’s domestic agriculture and consumers. We are hopeful that these courses will serve as a resource for Pakistan’s phytosanitary regulators,” said Agriculture Counsellor David Williams. “The success of these training modules in Pakistan has made SPS distance learning modules a key component of a the USAID initiative called the ‘Food Safety Network’, which will expand the curriculum to include animal health and food safety and deploy them globally in several languages.” Agriculture is Pakistan’s second largest sector, accounting for more than 21 percent of GDP. It remains by far the largest employer, with 46 percent of the labour force working in the sector. For the nearly 62 percent of the Pakistani population in rural areas, agriculture is a vital part of daily life. As of 2015, the USAID had allocated more than $350 million in Pakistan to support agricultural sector since 2002.