Pakistan and Afghan agriculture sector: US to spend $27.5 million to help improve sustainable development

Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (Parc) Chairman Dr Zafar Altaf said on Thursday that the United States was planning to spend 27.5 million dollars under the US Department of Agriculture's Food for Progress Programme for Pakistan and Afghanistan to help improve the sustainable development of their agricultural sectors.
He said this while addressing the participants of two-day symposium, organised by Parc, in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The symposium was attended by approximately 60 scientists from Mexico, the US, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Australia and Pakistan. Dr Zafar Altaf said that the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan had lately decided to monitor wheat rust UG99 through trilateral pledge, adding it would help ensure food security in the region.
It is to be noted that the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan plan to increase co-operation on agricultural development and support research on food production, agriculture-related issues and improvement of agricultural trade and markets. He said the countries had agreed to form working groups, which were established in the areas of food security, agricultural trade corridors, water management and watershed rehabilitation.
The food security working groups' priority challenge area targeted stem rust UG99 race as a major hazard for wheat production, he added. He said the US planned to join Pakistan and Afghanistan in accelerating a focused development effort that was expected to improve trade, increase the productivity of agriculture, revitalise local and regional agricultural markets, improve food security and transform the agriculture sector.
UG99, since its origin in Uganda in 1999, has migrated to Iran and has become a regional threat that now confronts wheat production and stability. It has opened up doors for Pakistani researchers to take a closer look at the constraint and make efforts to tackle the problem, he said. He said that Pakistan would take the lead role in producing and deploying unique resistant wheat varieties within the region.
Describing the significance of the trilateral alliance, he said it would, in addition, allow research to be conducted on the local stem rust virulence and enhance our capacities to avert the fungal threat, solidify leadership within Pakistan, building up regional capacities for making global impacts. The participants of the symposium prepared recommendation on a diverse range of aspects relating to the rust pathogens containment and target on capacity-building across multi-disciplinary facets to ensure regional food security and pave the way forward for other food commodities to be focused upon in the future.