KARACHI: Growing population, climate change, scarcity of water and changing lifestyles continue to pose challenges to world food security, said CropLife Asia Executive Director Dr Siang Hee Tan on Friday. Sharing his assessment of present regulatory environment in Pakistan with journalist, the executive director said, “We need to promote sustainable means to grow food and embrace technological innovations that enable the same.” He emphasised on the importance of an independent, science-based, transparent and predictable regulatory regime that would enable farmers to fully reap its benefits. Dr Hee urged regulators to develop better synergies with their international counterparts and benefit from knowledge-sharing through data-transportability arrangements. “The best-practices being adopted across Asia region include allocation of adequate resources for staffing and capacity building of regulatory bodies along with the deployment of modern agriculture technologies and progressive-farming methods. Rules and processes are being made more conducive to agricultural growth, through close consultation with the experts of this sector, he informed.” He appreciated the government of Pakistan’s vision and policy-position on technology adoption, especially relating to biotechnology. The establishment of more than 30 biotechnology research institutions was a testament to the government’s commitment towards promoting biotech crop solutions, he said. Dr Hee, who is currently in Pakistan on an invitation from CropLife Pakistan Association, would be meeting with key policymakers, regulators, government officials, industry and the scientific community. CropLife Asia is a global initiative to ensure sustainability of agriculture. Based in Singapore, CropLife Asia is operating in 91 countries with generous support from prestigious global enterprises like Bayer, Monsanto, Dupont, Syngenta, etc. This global federation nurtures technological solutions to enrich the plant-science industry in pursuit of sustainability in agriculture, while it advocates international developments for crop protection, seeds and agricultural biotechnology. Its innovative approach is protecting the interests of farmers, governments, consumers and the environment. Published in Daily Times, September 30th 2017.