FAO Assisting Govt In Formulating Drought Policy: FAO

MULTAN, (Muzaffargarh.City – 20th Sep, 2019 ) :food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) representative in Pakistan Ms Mina Dowlatchahi said on Friday that the FAO was assisting and working closely with the government to formulating a policy on drought at provincial level to help build resilience among drought-hit people to survive.

In a media briefing at the FAO Multan office on her maiden visit to the city of saints, she hoped that the drought policy would soon be unveiled by the government.

FAO project manager Faheem said that drought policy had already been formulated in Sindh province to focus particularly on plight of residents of Tharparkar while the policy in Punjab was in the process to focus inhabitants of Cholistan desert in Punjab.

Mina described tackling climate change and education modernisation as the top most challenges that Pakistan was facing these days.

She said, the FAO was successfully executing ‘Building Disaster Resilience in Pakistan’ (BDRP) programme, funded by the DFID, in three districts of Punjab including Jhang, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur that are most vulnerable to extreme events like floods.

It links also with the efforts the government was making through its agriculture emergency programme.

She said the BDRP was aimed at building capacity of inhabitants of areas and those hit by floods to minimize hazardous impact on agriculture and livestock through long, medium and short term strategies.

She said that under the BDRP, FAO interacted at the institutional level as well as the down-trodden local communities and so far built resilience among 17,000 people through capacity building.

Project manager Faheem said the second phase of the BRDP as in progress in three districts of Punjab, four districts of Sindh and two districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Objective of the programme was to strengthen weaker segments of society like small farmers who get low returns from their crop productions. Programme is aimed at increasing their production and to create enabling environment to fetch good returns of their produce to them.

Faheem disclosed that FAO was planned to introduce a new project to help Pakistan tackle challenges posed by climate change. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) would be aimed at developing a system of early or timely warning of ensuing extreme events like floods, rains to ensure timely evacuation of populations to safer places. GCF would focus five districts of Punjab including Multan, Lodhran, Khanewal, Dera Ghazi Khan and Muzaffargarh.

It was aimed at bringing change in the lives of small growers, he added.

Another FAO official Dr. Amir said that FAO was working in 190 countries and active in Pakistan for the last four decades playing a pivotal role in promoting agriculture in all provinces.

He added that Multan was the hub of agriculture in Punjab and rivers played an important role, adding that water level increase bring floods and low water carry the risks of drought.

He said that FAO was also assisting the government in water accounting on surface water and ground water. He said that 192 million acre feet (MAF) water was available in the country, including 140 MAF from rains or glaciers/ice melting and 50 MAF from the ground.

He added that out of it 128-130 MAF was diverted to agriculture through water courses and remaining 60 MAF water either absorbed by soil or goes into the sea.