2021’s World Food Day marks the importance of agricultural production for realizing the true meaning of World Food Day. World Food Day is celebrated over the globe to drive the attention of authorities towards the sheer food scarcity prevailing in the world. Each responsible country contributes to this one-day campaign of World Food Day on its edge; similarly does Pakistan every year.
Pakistan is confronting serious farming and agricultural problems. Due to this, Pakistan will soon be at the bottom line of food scarcity if immediate actions are not taken altogether. Regarding this, in the last week of June 2021, PM Imran Khan emphasized the importance of agricultural constraints by saying, “The biggest present challenge to Pakistan is food insecurity which will become an “Issue of National Security” if the agricultural issues aren’t properly addressed”.
If we look a little deeper into this issue through statistics, then we see that, with accelerated population growth and poverty, Pakistan stands at the 80th position on the Global Food Security Index 2020, out of 113 countries in South Asia. As per the ranking criteria of the Global Hunger Index 2020, Pakistan was placed in the 88th position out of 113 countries surveyed for the malnourished population, frequency of child mortality, stunting, and wasting conditions of children. This creates a condition of dilemma and contemplation for the government, officials, and experts.
While observing the needs of the hour and looking upon all these real issues, Pakistan’s authorities were seen as more determinant and vigilant than ever for the accomplishment of the central objective of World Food Day 2021. The theme elaborates itself as, “Our actions are our future-better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life”.
Better production is the first pillar of the 2021 World Food Day objective and points towards agricultural production. That’s why agriculture is the main sector to be focused on eradicating food insecurity and stepping towards the objective of “ZERO HUNGER”.
As per this idea, a program on World Food Day was held in Islamabad on the 14th of October, 2021. While standing in the hall of the COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad–DNA, President of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi stressed a paradigm shift to save mankind from hunger. He knew about all the agricultural issues like an inefficient use of irrigation water, seed quality, climate change crises, lack of technology and awareness, etc. He put stress on “We need more human resources to bring all the Muslim countries on one platform to combat this issue”. Moreover, he appreciated the collaborative efforts of COMSTECH and SAWiE to raise awareness of the most critical agricultural issues facing Pakistan.
President Alvi focused on the value of the agriculture office and the policies to enhance the crop yield and subsidize the farmers. He supported the prevalence of innovative tech in the agricultural sector to alleviate the downsides of conventional agriculture. All the experts from all over the globe uncovered ideas about reducing the effects of climate change on agriculture directly and on food security indirectly. As a consequence of the program, it could be said that Pakistan’s officials are eager to solve the hunger issues by uplifting agriculture and smallholders through technology, policies, and the collaborative efforts of experts.