Australia urged to help rebuild food production

Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) has appealed to Australia's agricultural industries to assist in the rebuilding of food production in flood-affected areas of Pakistan. According to the spokesperson of the PBIT the initiative was taken during the recent trade mission's visit to Australia. The mission consists of leading Pakistani agricultural organisations.
The purpose of the mission is to establish trade relations and transfer new food production technologies The leader of the recent trade delegation from Pakistan was Director General, Punjab Board of Investment and Trade, Moazzam Husain. While giving details of the mission Moazam said that Managing Director of Kondinin Group, Australia's national farm improvement group Richard Price has urged the government and agricultural industries to work together in rebuilding Pakistan's production capacity.
Hussain further said that farmers were hugely dependent on livestock and food grain cultivation, both of these devastated by the floodwater and any response such as provision of live animals, embryos or semen as well as food grains and canola seeds would be hugely beneficial.
He also said that PBIT is proactively engaging and facilitating its national and international trade partners for flood relief and rehabilitation. He said that Pakistan High Commissioner to Australia, Fauzia Nasreen has also welcomed the initiative. Richard Price, Managing Director of Kondinin Group, in response to PBIT's appeal has said that while Australia's farmers have experienced their share of natural disasters, the disaster unfolding in Pakistan is of an enormous scale, with over thirty percent of the productive land mass affected by the flooding, and crop and livestock production wiped out.
He further said that with a collective effort we can assist to re-establish production utilising Australian technologies and genetics, ensuring a speedy and sustainable recovery to food production and create an ongoing trade relationship with more than 50 million farmers in the Punjab region alone.