By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research (NFS&R), Syed Fakhar Imam on Sunday said the ecological changes severely affected the agriculture sector, human life and was a major challenge for Sustainable environmental development in the country. He said the sustainable environmental growth was imperative for improvement of the agricultural sector on which human life depends.
The Minister NFS&R stated this while speaking as Chief guest at launching of seven-day awareness campaign on “Eat, Move and Live sustainability for sustainable living standards and better living in accordance with the environmental standards”, jointly organized by Sweden embassy in Islamabad and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) here.
He said the current economy was centered around the agricultural sector, including crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry. In the presence of all these factors, an economy could be termed a sustainable one.
The minister said the climate change has also affected our agricultural sector, including major crops such as cotton and wheat, which were in dire need of extreme weather protection.
“Right now we have 200 million livestock, which is very low,” Fakhar Imam said and added that one of the major reasons behind the decline in livestock in the country was the lack of good food and medicine.
He said that at present, Pakistan was a country rich in natural beauty and natural resources. “We have six major mountain peaks in the world, despite the existence of glaciers, today we are facing water scarcity for agriculture which is also due to climate change,” he informed.
The Minister NFS&R said that in the past, forests have been cut down in Pakistan while now the efforts were being made to replant the same. Similarly, there were some rare animals in our northern regions that need to be protected, he said and added “We need to educate our young generation
about climate change so that we can have sustainable development in the future.”
Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador of Sweden to Pakistan Henrik Parson said the sustainable environmental growth was must for mitigating the major environmental threat to human life.
