UNITED NATIONS, Apr 18 (Alliance News):Climate change is adversely affecting Pakistan’s agricultural production, making the food self-sufficient country into a deficient one, Ambassador Munir Akram told a UN event on Monday
“This is obviously one of the critical impacts of the poly-crises we have been facing during the past three years,” the Pakistani envoy said during a discussion organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on ways to bring the role of finance for development to mitigating and preventing food crises and promoting food systems transformation.
Among other speakers were FAO’s Chief Economist Maximo Torero, who joined the event virtually from Rome, and its co-organizers — El Salvador’s Ambassador Egriselda Aracely Gonzalez-Lopez and Ethiopian Ambassador Tesfaye Yila Sabo.
Outlining Pakistan’s case, Ambassador Akram said the country was almost food sufficient, with agriculture accounting for 38 percent of the labour force, contributing 22.7 percent to GDP in 2021–22.
“Yet, because of climate change, there has been a steady deterioration in our ability to produce,” the Pakistani envoy said, pointing out that his country suffered one of the worst climate crises last year — a spring heatwave shriveled harvests, followed by unprecedented summer floods drowning them.
“The floods inundated 4.4 million acres of standing crops,” he said, adding, “From food self-sufficient we became deficient without the ability to plant for the next season due to the standing water.”
Having suffered such massive impacts, the Pakistani envoy said Pakistan could not qualify for any of the international criteria for support.
“We found to our shock, we are not eligible for the food shock window nor for the PRGT (Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust)”, he said. “Our negotiations with the IMF have dragged on for months and months for reasons…”
In this regard, Ambassador Akram agreed with UN Secretary-General’s conclusion that the financial system was “morally bankrupt”.
“People are suffering from exogenous shocks, yet they are not being able to gain access to support,” he said, highlighting the fact that there is something wrong with the system that we must seek to correct.”