Country faces food insecurity challenge

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan, with a population of over 215 million, is facing food and nutritional insecurity challenges, which are costing the country around $7.6 billion per annum or 3% of national GDP, said Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam.

Addressing the United Nations Food Systems Pre-Summit 2021 on Friday, the minister said that the share of agriculture sector in GDP was 19.2%, which was “a lifeline of national economy from many perspectives”.

“Pakistan is blessed with 10 highly diversified agro-ecologies,” he said, adding that the country had 23 million hectares of cultivable land, 1,000 km of coastline with three big and more than 100 small dams.

“All this signifies that the system-based approach is more appropriate for us,” the minister stated.

Imam termed the UN Food Systems Summit an opportunity to review the progress on Sustainable Development Goals and meeting the challenges in achieving zero hunger through establishing robust coalitions.

He said that Pakistan had prepared working papers through all-inclusive consultative process.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2021.

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