ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government has signed an agreement with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for an IFAD country office in Pakistan, the Pakistani foreign office said on Tuesday, which would formalize already existing cooperation between the two sides in food security, climate resilience and rural poverty reduction.
The host country agreement between Pakistan and the IFAD was signed by Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and IFAD President Alvaro Lario in Islamabad, according to the Pakistani foreign office.
The IFAD is an important partner for Pakistan in its efforts to ensure food security, resilience against climate disasters and poverty alleviation in rural areas. The current IFAD portfolio across Pakistan totals $673 million, which is the second highest IFAD undertaking in the world.
"There are 5 ongoing IFAD projects in Pakistan in Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and South Punjab, with a sixth project forthcoming in Sindh," the foreign office said in a statement.
"IFAD projects are in the areas of nutrition, women empowerment, climate change and youth engagement."
Faced with an economic crisis and adverse impacts of climate change, the South Asian country has been making efforts to boost the national food security.
Agriculture contributes 23 percent to Pakistan’s GDP and employs 37.4 percent of the labor force, but the country's productivity is currently below par, with decreasing cultivation area, a population-production gap, and agricultural imports amounting to $10 billion.
The country is also facing a 4 million metric ton shortfall in wheat production against a total demand of 30.8 million metric tons, while cotton production has fallen by 40 percent to around 5 million bales in the last decade.
On Monday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief General Asim Munir inaugurated the nation’s first corporate farm as part of the Green Pakistan Initiative (GPI) to modernize agricultural practices in the country.
GPI, which focuses on water conservation, sustainable farming and research and development, was launched earlier this month, along with a Land Information and Management System Center of Excellence ((LIMS-CoE) to enhance modern farming on over 9 million hectares of uncultivated state land, with Saudi Arabia providing an initial investment of $500 million.
