Pak’s food security challenge needs a systematic approach: Experts

News Desk

ISLAMABAD: Speakers at an international symposium on Monday stressed the need to have a systematic approach to address food security challenges in the country.

The participants of the symposium also stressed the need for developing a center of excellence in conservation agriculture and digital climate-smart farming solutions at Punjab University.

The symposium was held at the faculty of Agriculture, the University of Punjab in cooperation with COMSTECH, UPSIGN, SAWIE, SACAN and Dawood Agro on Monday.

The scientists emphasized design policies, indigenous farming solutions, and better management of the most important resources of soil and water to address the climate change crisis.

Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) Chairman Prof Shahid Munir, on the occasion, said that food security is strategically important for Pakistan to feed its growing population, and the research and industry linkages could play a vital role in developing new technologies and promoting farmers to enhance their yield under the changing climatic conditions.

Prof Munir said that the per capita annual water availability in Pakistan has dropped to 1,017 cubic meters from 5300 in 1947 and may lead to absolute water scarcity by 2025.

He said this will result in severe water shortages for the next generation of farmers. Future water requirements and challenges impose a serious threat to Pakistan due to its agrarian economy where wheat and rice are primary food crops, he informed.

There is an urgent need to develop innovative solutions for efficient and sustainable use of water, improving nutrient use efficiency, reducing the crop losses from pests and diseases both pre and post-harvesting, and thus requires utmost priority in our national planning, he suggested.

The PHEC chairman mentioned that Pakistan will be importing 4 million tons of wheat this year to meet its food demand, which is quite an alarming situation for our nation.

UPSIGN Co-founder Dr. Khalid Mahmood emphasized the need to better build collaboration, cooperation, and communication among all the stakeholders.

Dr Farooq from Sultan Qaboos University said that Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries severely affected by climate change causing unprecedented droughts, floods, the influx of pests, diseases and locust attacks in 2020, and the severe heat wave in 2022 affecting wheat crop.

The heavy rains and hailstorms have adversely impacted the wheat crop with reducing yields by 25 percent to 30 percent in 2020.

SAWIE/SACAN CEO Eng Mushtaq Gill (TI) said Pakistan needs to address its rice and wheat system on an emergency basis. Wheat prices around the world are soaring due to the Ukraine war and the climate change crisis.

Pakistan is ranked 77/113 in the Global Food Security Index, 71/113 for food affordability, and 74/113 for food quality and safety, having few food safety net programs, and scoring 40.5 percent below average.

Director of Rice Research Institute Syed Sultan Ali said our Rice production is 100 percent dependent on flood irrigation which consumes 35 percent of total water available in the country. Its future is at risk if we do not promote sustainable practices. Rice crop supports foreign exchange earnings by more than $2.5 billion.

Punjab Agriculture Research Director General Muhammad Nawaz Khan informed participants about the department’s efforts to develop climate-smart varieties to address the water scarcity and heat challenge.

He said that Rice and Wheat crop yields in Pakistan are low compared to the rest of the world due to an array of factors such as water shortage, crop pests and disease infestations, and improper use of fertilizers like nitrogen.

Wheat Research Institute Director Dr Javed Ahmad said AARI is taking a challenge in developing new germplasm to tolerate drought and heat and also improving the nutrients uptake.  University of Agriculture Faisalabad Dr Abdul Wakeel said that the nutrient use efficiency of wheat and rice crops is the lowest in the region. We use more nitrogen fertilizer compared to other countries in the world. Only one-third of the nitrogen is available to plants and the rest all gets wasted.

This is not only a loss for the farmer but causing damage to our environment due to NO2 emissions.  International speaker, Prof. Bijay Singh from Punjab Agriculture University Ludhiana said, there is a dire need for a second green revolution to enhance our grain yields based on developing strong communication links between farmers, academicians, planners, and politicians.

Abdul Hanan explained the features of SAWIE App that are available for farmers for free. SAWIE outreach program is supporting more than 0.6 million farmers across Pakistan to provide the knowledge base and smart weather and crop advisory.

Adil Farooq, from Dawood Agro, said, through mechanical planting, we can increase the plant population of 120,000 plants per acre to achieve 40 mounds yield compared to 15 mounds. This will help to spare land to grow other crops.

FAO in charge of Conservation Agriculture, Prof Kassam said that we need to educate our farmers about conserving our natural resource soil and water by promoting practices like zero tillage method, optimal agronomic practices such as balanced application of fertilizer and irrigation schedule that not only improve input use efficiency but also will make the Rice and Wheat production system more sustainable in the context of environment and economics.

Eng. Fakhar from PCRWR said, they are providing irrigation advisory to farmers and are keen to share their knowledge of using IoT and sensors to help farmers cut down water consumption by 40 percent.

In concluding remarks, Dr Abdul Majid from ICARDA said, there is an urgent need to adopt green practices in agriculture, such as conservative and regenerative agriculture along with transitioning to sustainable food production.

Virtual University ORIC Director Dr Arshad Hashmi said that VU has four TV channels and campuses across Pakistan and is keen to support the digital literacy of farmers, especially women to take advantage of smart farming solutions.

Eng. Zakir Sial emphasized the need for judicious use of groundwater, utilization of renewable energy sources, building existing clean energy capacities, low-carbon mass transit systems, water conservation/preservation mechanisms, and improving irrigation water use efficiency aimed at reducing and curbing the wastage of precious water & GHG emissions.  Farah Naz from GAIN said we need to promote the seed varieties and use of balanced fertilizer with trace elements of Zinc & Boron to address malnutrition in Pakistan. Additional input APP