Director General of the Food & Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO) Mr. Qu Dongyu is on a visit to Pakistan from February 14-16, 2020. He called on the Minister for National Food Security & Research today in his office along with other senior officials of FAO. Senior officials from the Ministry of NFS&R were also present during the meeting.
The Minister welcomed DG (FAO) to Pakistan and appreciated contribution of FAO for development of agriculture sector. Pakistan and FAO have long history of collaboration which may further be strengthened by developing new cooperation mechanism policy particularly for locust control. The Minister further apprised that the Government of Pakistan has declared a national emergency for controlling locust. FAO is an important development partner and it can provide assistance for surveillance of locust especially mapping out the situation intra-regional and regional situation.
Mr. Qu Dongyu thanked the Minister for a warm reception and acknowledged Pakistan as an important member of FAO. He affirmed to consider provision of support to compliment the efforts of the Government of Pakistan for controlling locust. He apprised that locust has delivered a serious disaster in eastern Africa. FAO is mobilizing its resources in collaboration with its development partners to cope with this emergency situation.
Khusru Bakhtyar underlined that the government is likely to launch a massive operation for locust control shortly for which Department of Plant Protection (DPP), Provincial Governments and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) will jointly be engaged. Technical support of FAO would be extremely important to curb the menace of locust in an effective and timely manner. For this purpose a coordination cell is being established at the Ministry of National Food Security & Research. The Minister and the DG (FAO) agreed that FAO and the Ministry may jointly develop a roadmap for locust control.
Mr. Bakhtyar also appreciated that DG (FAO) has undertaken locust control as an emergency project and has scheduled an exhaustive visit tomorrow to some areas in Multan and Depalpur to eye witness the locust situation.
At the end of the meeting, the Minister and the DG (FAO) also witnessed signing of a Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) Agreement for locust control.
Later the Minister presented a souvenir to the DG (FAO) and his team in good gesture of hospitality. The Minister also hosted a lunch in the honor of the DG(FAO) and his delegation.
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