Climate change ‘poses serious threat to food security’

Use of outdated methods in agriculture are aggravating woes of farming community

FAISALABAD: Shrinking profitability in agriculture sector, injudicious use of inputs, poor farming techniques, post-harvest practices and effects of climate change on crops pose a serious challenge to food security.

University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor and Chief of the US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security [USPCAS-AFS] Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan expressed these views while briefing the media persons on the objectives of USPCAS.

He said use of outdated methods in agriculture was not only making the sector incompatible with the rest of world but also aggravating the woes of the farming community.



"Almost 60 per cent of water and inputs at the agricultural fields are being wasted due to imbalance usage and unavailability of modern technologies," he said.

"Climate changes are playing havoc with crops production and pose a serious challenge to the food security as well as in all other sphere of life," he added.



"It is unfortunate the prices of the wheat per 40 kilogrammes in the international market is just Rs 1,000 while in Pakistan it prices has been fixed at Rs1,300 whereas after including interest rate of banks and other charges, it costs Rs1,500 to the government, cleanly reflecting that notwithstanding the fact  we claim that we are agriculture-based country."

"The extra ordinary changing in demography, climate and international trade policies are impacting the economies of the countries. In this scenario, agriculture sector of our country is more important than what might have appeared as a source of food security only," Dr Iqrar remarked.



He said under USAID funded USPCAS, five chairs including climate change, precision agriculture, biotechnology, outreach and policy had been established to address the problem of sector by making it compatible to international market.

He said the faculty-student exchange programme, as many as 138 slots had been created to send to University of California USA for capacity building and learn from their experience.

He said 50 people out of 138 slots have got the training under the programme. The slots had been bifurcated in research, curriculum reforms and stakeholders.

“In order to achieve its objectives USPCAS-AFS is working in five dimensions including efficient governance and leadership; effective curricular reforms; high quality applied and policy research; internationally competitive multidisciplinary graduate training; and technical and financial sustainability.”

He said that USPCAS has initiated commissioned research keeping the need of the farmers and trends in agriculture in view. He said that due to bad food habits and diminishing outdoor healthy activities, 40% of population suffers from malnutrition, obesity and other health issues.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2017.