November 22, 2010

 

EU to continue support for Pakistan's food security

The Europe-Aid Director for Asia and Central Asia, Dirk Meganck vows that the EU will continue to support combating Pakistan's rising food prices and ensuring the country's food security.

 

"Pakistan is a great country, a great nation with a great potential and a large population but it is also a country affected by big problems, big calamities while the greatest calamity has been the recent floods", Dirk Meganck said.

 

Meganck said the ones who have suffered the highest in this country are those living in the rural areas amounting 60%-70% of the population and the people living in these rural areas contribute greatly to the economy.

 

He also expressed his pleasure to see the funds of EUR40 million (US$55.05 million) have been utilised properly and help rebuild communities and to provide a sustainable environment.

 

"Our purpose is to support and help build your communities especially when they are affected by such calamities", he stated.

 

Later, he distributed large quantities of wheat seed, fertiliser and winter vegetable seeds among the small-scale male and female farmers of village Karsal.

 

The purpose of these distributions is to ensure that timely Rabi planting takes place in the flood hit areas of the country where the standing crops over 2.4 million hectares got washed away by the recent disastrous floods.

 

The Rabi package distribution is a part of the EUR40 million (US$55.05 million) food facility project which aims at combating the rising food prices in the country.

 

As a part of the European Union Food Facility (EUFF) initiative, the beneficiaries including small-scale farmers owning two to four hectares of land and the women who head households are receiving the Rabi Package which includes a 50kg bag of Wheat Seeds, a 50kg bag of Urea, 50kg DAP and vegetable seeds for Tomato, Turnip, Spinach and Peas, to produce adequate grain for their household consumption.

 

EUFF is being implemented by the UN's FAO and World Food Program (WFP) since May 2009 and it currently supports over 161,000 households of small-scale farmers in 17 most food vulnerable districts.

 

The National Project Manager EUFF, Dr Faiz-ul-Bari, said the main purpose of the project is to increase sustainable food security for the most vulnerable households in food deficient areas of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Balochistan.

 

"We are endeavouring to increase staple food availability, increase productivity as a result of improved irrigation/water harvesting structures, provision of storing facilities and agricultural tools, strengthened productive capacities and local governance", he said.

 

He said that in addition to the EUFF, FAO will support over 500,000 households with agriculture inputs during the current Rabi season, over 214,000 households with livestock veterinary and feed support while over 19,000 households will benefit from rehabilitation and repairs to the irrigation structures.