Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Foreign delegates from Italy, Greece and Tunisia on Saturday during an international conference in Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR) stressed to follow either mitigation or adaptation strategy to overcome climate change by adopting sustainable and innovative water saving approaches, plans and polices and they said that avoid the unmanageable and manage the unavoidable.

Representatives of the Amsterdam International Community School (AICS) Dr Pipi and Dr Sertoli also participated in the conference and hoped that that Italian cooperation will assist Pakistan agriculture to develop new scenarios in addressing food security and social instability in Pakistan.

While addressing as chief guest, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council Chairman Dr Yousaf Zafar said that Pakistan has not the issue of production or distribution of resources but instead of governance and management.

He said our agriculture production is in surplus this year all because of our research and educational institutes, despite the fact that agriculture sector has investment of 0.18 percent from the Gross Domestic Product. He said Pakistan now has a National Food Security Policy for the first time in history with the aim to achieve zero hunger and Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. He was of the opinion that, “Any region of the world getting more than 1,000 millilitres of rain can never be a water scarce country.”

He said Pakistan has potential as our 65 percent population is comprised of the young generation which also has the capacity to meet future challenges of the country and hoped that they would play a role for food security as well as for water management to get rid of all social instabilities in Pakistan.

PMAS-AAUR Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Sarwat N Mirza said, “Climate change has emerged as one of the biggest threats to our planet. Also greenhouse gases on one side increase the temperature of Earth resulting in a devastating disruption of the Earth’s climatic processes. It is the right time to focus and understand the importance of agricultural water management and its impact on food security and social stability.”

He appreciated the efforts of Environmental Sciences Department Chairman Dr Azeem Khalid and Italian National Research Council Director Dr Mauro Centritto and also thanked AICS for their generous support and funding to develop innovative water harvesting techniques for sustainable agricultural water management in Potohar area.

Published in Daily Times, July 1^st 2018.