FAO assures Pakistan of support in agriculture.

ISLAMABAD -- The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has assured Pakistan that it will continue to play a leading role in transforming the country's agriculture food systems to make them more efficient, inclusive, sustainable and resilient. This is a challenge that has gained urgency following recent floods that have devastated the country's agriculture sector.

In Pakistan, the FAO will require massive and sustained investments in climate change adaptation and resilience, especially within the agri-food sectors as this is crucial to ensure better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life for all - the '4 Betters' that are at the core of the FAO Strategic Framework for the next decade, FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said while speaking at the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan, in Geneva on Monday.

The FAO chief said the organisation had also been leading preparations for the agriculture, fisheries and livestock section of the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and has contributed to developing the livelihood component of the UN's Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Framework (4RF).

Under the 4R framework, at least $4 billion are urgently needed to facilitate the immediate recovery of the agriculture sector, and to lay the foundations for lasting resilience, according to FAO.

To date, organisation has mobilised over $25m, provided 600,000 affected people with seeds, fertilisers

An estimated 4.4 million acres of farmland - enough to cultivate crops for 14.6 million people - were damaged, and more than 800,000 animals perished in the floods.

...