Speakers on Monday warned that emerging global climate change impacts are likely to accelerate the process of desertification, land degradation and drought, while livelihood of dry-land communities will be in danger. They were addressing a National Consultative Workshop on ‘Review of National Agriculture Policy Documents in context of Sustainable Land Management’, organised by Sustainable Land Management Project (SLMP).
Addressing the occasion, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) Chairman Dr Muhammad Afzal said presence of a diverse group of people reflects that sustainable land management is gaining recognition at policy and planning level discussions as focus on addressing land degradation and desertification issues of Pakistan is visible. He said 68 percent of Pakistan’s population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. The agriculture sector contributes 24 percent to the GDP, employs 48 percent of the labour force and contributes to 70 percent of the foreign exchange earnings. He said Pakistani agricultural polices have been tilted towards irrigated lands in the past, while dry-lands and rain-fed agriculture have been neglected.
He believed the vast potential of harnessing rainwater and hill torrents for agriculture, range and livestock management has not been tapped properly. He called for all possible support for cross-sector sustainable land management programme, which is in the best interest of Pakistan’s socio-economic development. SLMP National Project Coordinator Dr Amjad Tahir Virk highlighted objectives of the workshop and hoped that this important workshop will provide an opportunity to share recommendations with key stakeholders and to review the National Agriculture policy Document. Forest Inspector General Syed Mehmood Nasir said land degradation and desertification still remains a major environmental challenge in Pakistan as dry-land communities are heavily dependent on these resources for their livelihoods. UNDP Programme Officer Munazza Naqvi said such reviews were needed in order to devise a more comprehensive policy and to strategise, plan and implement in the right direction.
Recommendations of workshop will be forwarded to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture so that they can be incorporated into national and provincial policies. National and Provincial level policy makers, planners and experts participated and shared their views on the study conducted by the SLMP for its further refinement before sharing it with the concerned ministry.
