PESHAWAR: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Office of the Director-General, Agriculture Research (DGAR), KP, Peshawar.

Florence Marie Rolle, FAO Representative in Pakistan, Janat Gul, Special Secretary Agriculture, Government of KP, and Dr Muhammad Abdur Rauf, DG Agriculture Research, KP signed the MoU papers. Since both the entities share common goals of achieving the related SDGs and contributing to the country’s economic development, the partnership will open new avenues of collaboration in the province.

The signing ceremony of the MoU took place after the formal inauguration of the new FAO KP Office collocated at the premises of the DG Agriculture Research.

The opening ceremony was jointly performed by Florence Rolle, Janat Gul, Dr M Adur Rauf and Dr Haji Muhammad, Director Field Operation, Agriculture Extension Department, KP.

FAO representative thanked the Provincial Government and DG agriculture Research KP for welcoming and housing the FAO-KP team at their premises and hoped that the extended cooperation between them will not only benefit the staff of the two organisations through knowledge sharing but will boost support for the farming community of the province through the introduction of innovations and technical support. Furthermore, FAO intends to cover a wide range of activities including capacity building, knowledge sharing, resource and expertise provision, and developing financing initiatives to advance their development agenda.

Later on the visiting mission had a detailed meeting with the DG PDMA, Sharif Hussain and his team at Civil Secretariat Peshawar and discussed with him the areas of future collaboration. Farrukh Toirov, Deputy FAOR, Mujibur Rahman, Head of FAO-KP, Zuhra Nigar, Director DRM, and others FAO and government officials attended the meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022