Federal Secretary Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R) Ahmad Bukhsh Lehri has said that Pakistan can significantly move forward to solve national food and nutritional security problems of millions of Pakistani households by formulating and adopting rational agriculture and national food policies.
He was addressing the inaugural session of the two-day 'Consultative provincial workshop on National Food and Nutrition Security Policy' being arranged jointly by the Ministry of Food Security, Punjab government, four brothers group, Seed Association of Pakistan and Kanzo Seed.
Food security requires addressing the key areas of sustainable food availability, sustainable access to food, food utilisation and nutrition, stability in food prices/supplies, food and nutrition information systems; monitoring and evaluation and food safety, he added.
He stated that Pakistan needed to focus on all those issues on a sustainable basis in the longer run. He said the Ministry had already started working on "Zero Hunger Action Plan" that aimed at eradicating hunger from the country. "For enhancing food availability, agriculture research organisations in Pakistan such as Parc, in collaboration with provincial agriculture research institutes and centres are working hard in developing new technologies and improving the existing ones," he added. Core objective of the policy was to reduce the current food insecurity situation, he added.
Former Federal Minister for Finance and Economist Dr Salman Shah said food was the basic right of every citizen and the government was ensuring necessary steps to fulfil the need of nutritious food to every individual. He further said that public-private partnership was very important in the development of Agri sector of Pakistan and the government was striving to involve private sector while facilitating them.
He also called for optimal usage of available land, developing water resources including construction of new dams, capacity building of farmers and utilisation of latest technology for enhancing productivity of the agriculture sector to make it attractive for the rural youth.
He said there was a need that a competitive environment should be created between the 'Mandis' (commodity markets) across the country to stop them becoming a cartel thus providing advantage to both the producers and the consumers, adding agricultural sector could give boost to growth rate.
Abdul Basit Khan, MNFS&R Additional Secretary briefed the goals and objectives of the workshop. He said the Ministry of National Food Security & Research had initiated consultative process in all provinces in collaboration with the provincial governments and other stakeholders for formulation of National Food and Nutrition Security Policy (NFNSP) intending to counter the food insecurity in the country.
He further added that the government for the first time had tried to introduce the Food and Nutrition Security Policy. The recommendations of the workshop will be shared with all stakeholders and all provinces would be taken on board before a final draft. Federal government is working actively to expedite this process.
For increasing agricultural productivity, a number of services and support institutions need to be either strengthened or to be created at national, provincial and district levels. The process needs to be started from the top at ministerial level down to the mobilisation of farming communities. All the line R&D ministries/departments/institutions also need to be reformed accordingly. The focus of commodity research needs to be shifted to system perspectives in order to enhance research impacts and income of the farming community.
Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (Parc) while addressing the workshop said working groups were determining the evolution process and ascertaining proposals for finalising the draft of National Food and Security Policy in the country.
He hoped that valuable suggestions would help the authorities to formulate a radical and meaningful policy to cope the issue of food security in the country. He said that National Food and Nutrition Security Policy was aimed at provision of food to those who were in real need with increased agriculture produce. He said four main policy features were sustainable food availability, food accessibility, food utilisation and nutrition and stability in food supplies. The aim of the policy would be that all Pakistanis should have access to nutritious food having a healthy and active life at all times.
The specific aims of this Policy are to establish the vision and institutional structures which will allow the ministry to facilitate a process involving Federal and Provincial authorities, including ministries, departments, development partners, civil society and private sector through new establishment of a Food and Nutrition Security Council at national, provincial and district levels. In addition, mechanisms to prepare programs and to monitor food and nutrition security are recommended. According to proposed draft of agriculture policy, access to food implies whether individuals and households are able to access the required food.
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