‘Fast conversion of farmlands near cities into housing societies gravely endangers Pakistan’s food security’

Sindh Environment Minister Dost Muhammad Rahimoon has said the fast diminishing farmlands near urban centres due to their conversion into gated housing societies has posed serious threats to Pakistan’s food security.

He stated this while speaking as the chief guest at a conference on the nexus between climate change and threatened food security in the world organised by the National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH).

He said the floods of 2022, which were a natural calamity linked to the issue of climate change, had badly damaged the economy and farming sectors of Sindh. Rahimoon said that massive plantations of mangrove forests on the coastal belt and decreased reliance on fossil fuels for energy generation were two key aspects of the Sindh government’s strategy to tackle the issue of climate change. He assured the audience that the Sindh government had the utmost resolve to take to task those responsible for flouting environmental laws and regulations.

He invited the concerned members of civil society to become partners with the Sindh government’s drive to improve environmental conditions by upholding the relevant laws. Speaking as the guest of honour, Consul General United Arab Emirates Bakheet Ateeq Al Remeithi said the recent floods had necessitated that the local community especially elders should be consulted before constructing development projects in rural areas to ensure that natural drainage passages are not blocked.

He suggested that topics on climate change, environmental protection, and climate change should be taught at the school level in an engaging manner like conducting drawing competitions on these issues concerning daily lives as was being done in the UAE.

He informed the audience that Pakistan’s traditional organic food items should be marketed to international consumers who were keen to buy such nourishing and delicious eatable products from around the world to avoid unhealthy processed food.

He said the prospective foreign investors especially from the Middle Eastern countries were keen to invest in Pakistan’s farming sector to fortify Pakistan’s food security. Speaking as another guest of honour at the conference, the consul general of Oman, Sami Abdullah Salim Al Khanjari, acknowledged that food security had become a global problem due to the worsening issue of climate change.

He shared with the audience the salient features of Vision-2040 of Oman, which stood for maximum reliance on renewable forms of energy and achieving the net zero carbon targets in his country.

He said that fortifying food security in Pakistan would go a long way in promoting Oman-Pakistan relations in the farming sector. Up to 60 per cent of rice consumed in Oman comes from Pakistan, he said.

He praised several plantation initiatives launched in Karachi in the current monsoon season to restore the city’s green cover. Former Sindh agriculture secretary Abdul Rahim Soomro said that the constant increase in population had mainly threatened Pakistan’s food security.

He said the subjects of environment, climate change, agriculture, and food security should be fully devolved to the provinces as per the 18th Constitutional Amendment as the federal government shouldn’t have new ministries to deal with these issues.

He emphasised the use of the latest technology to increase per acre crop yield in Pakistan to ensure its food security. He said freshwater should be constantly released to protect the Indus River Delta and Sindh’s resource-rich marine ecosystem.

He urged the federal government to release its promised share of funds for constructing five combined effluent treatment plants in Karachi to ensure that untreated industrial waste was not released into the sea.

Former Sindh forests and wildlife secretary Shamsul Haq Memon urged the government to adopt effective mitigation measures on an urgent basis against environmental degradation given that Pakistan is among the top five most climate-vulnerable nations.

Dr Zubala Yasir Lutfi, from the Department of Food Science & Technology at the University of Karachi, said the constant release of industrial effluents into water bodies had adversely affected the cultivation of food crops in the country.

NFEH President Naeem Qureshi expressed serious concern that over 19 metric tonnes of precious food was wasted in the country annually having a value of around $4 billion. He said that such a massive quantity of food waste should be prevented to feed up to 35 per cent of the population in Pakistan that lived below the poverty line.

Ruqiya Naeem, NFEH general secretary, said that her NGO would continue to hold more such dialogues by inviting all the concerned stakeholders to find a way to reverse the phenomenon of environmental degradation.

The Sindh environment minister and UAE and Oman consuls general conferred Annual Environment Excellence on over 80 companies and industrial establishments for showing excellence in environmental protection last year.