35th virtual Session of the FAO Asia and Pacific Regional Conference , hosted virtually by the Royal Government of Bhutan, with representatives from 46 countries examining the present situation of the region's food security, with a particular emphasis on implications linked to the spread of the coronavirus and its impact on food systems region-wide. Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research (NFSR) addressed the session and said that Pakistan's 19.3 pc of GDP is based on agriculture and its 75 pc export is agriculture based. He said that the region need to examine the present situation of the region’s food security, with a particular emphasis on implications linked to the spread of COVID 19 and its impact on food systems. He said that climate change is another aggravating factor menacing efforts to increase resilience across our food systems. He added that Pakistan is also facing issue of locust. He said that our priority is to reduce poverty in rural areas.
Secretary NFSR, Omar Hamid Khan mentioned that FAO can help NFSR in generating short, medium and long term interventions for food security of the country. He said that as the country is in crisis mode, so policy on food security should be churned out.
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