Pakistan is ‘food insecure’ despite agricultural output growth

The News (Pakistan): Despite growth of agricultural output Pakistan is still ‘food insecure’ and facing high level of ‘hunger and malnutrition”, and climate change is threat to this country that can be tackled by educating communities, said Vice Chancellor, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Dr Rashid Amjad.

He was addressing project inception workshop on ‘Climate Change Adaptation; Water and Food Insecurity in Pakistan’ here on Friday. The workshop was organised by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics. Dr Nadeem-Ul-Haque, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, was the chief guest on the occasion, and Vice Chancellor, PIDE, Dr Rashid Amjad chaired the session.

The project gets technical and financial support from Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The research partners include PIDE, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), and Social Policy Development Centre (SPDC), Karachi. The overall objective of the project is to generate quality information on the subject and building research capacity.

Dr Rashid Amjad said that Pakistan was the gift of Indus and our economy was built on it and still majority of our people depend for their livelihood on agriculture irrigated with its waters. About 80 % of our exports are related to agriculture sector, he added. He emphasized that climate change was reality and being most vulnerable country Pakistan needs to build resilience by adaptation like strengthening communities...

The Indus River delta from space