Pakistan has called for expanded collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as federal ministers held two high-level meetings with FAO leadership on Monday, focusing on water scarcity, climate resilience, land management and long-term agricultural reform.
Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination Dr Musadik Malik met with an FAO delegation led by Lifeng Li, Director of the organisation’s Land and Water Division, to discuss sustainable land management, water governance and climate-resilient development. In a separate session, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain chaired discussions with the same delegation on irrigation shortages, degraded water quality and declining seed resilience.
During his meeting, Dr Malik was briefed on FAO’s ongoing work in Pakistan, including programmes to prevent land degradation, initiatives to improve the use of Indus Basin resources and reforms aimed at strengthening water governance. FAO officials also presented the Country Programming Framework for 2023–2027 and demonstrated the Aqua Portal, designed to enhance inter-agency information sharing on water systems.
Dr Malik said Pakistan must prioritise areas where public returns are limited, particularly capacity building and institutional development. He discussed plans for establishing Green Clusters to support young entrepreneurs developing environmental and climate-related technologies and said structured frameworks were needed for coordination, capacity building and public–private partnerships. He stressed that climate projects should not redirect financing away from core human development sectors.
In the separate meeting at the Ministry of Food Security, Minister Rana Tanveer said sharply declining water levels are now affecting drinking supplies and irrigation. He warned that large-scale construction activity on fertile agricultural land is affecting long-term food production and urged FAO assistance in boosting rice yields through flagship projects aimed at revitalising the agricultural sector.
He pressed FAO to support the digitalisation of agriculture, saying modern tools could improve water and land management and strengthen productivity. He also raised concerns about deteriorating irrigation water quality and seed performance, saying farmers need more resilient seed varieties as climate pressures increase.
The minister called for improved water resource management techniques, including precision irrigation, and said future FAO projects should involve national institutions from the design stage to ensure local ownership and sustainability. He emphasised that co-implementation would strengthen Pakistan’s research and extension systems, improve institutional memory and help scale interventions after project completion.
Responding to both ministers, Lifeng Li reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to supporting Pakistan in water governance, land management, agricultural research and climate-resilient farming. He said FAO is ready to help Pakistan deploy remote sensing, GIS systems and climate modelling tools, and acknowledged the need for building national capacity to design and implement climate-related projects independently.
Li added that strengthening Pakistan’s ability to secure and manage international climate finance is essential for long-term development.
Both ministries and FAO agreed to advance discussions on joint initiatives in water resource management, seed development, precision agriculture technologies, and institutional capacity building. Officials said future collaboration will aim to align FAO’s technical support with Pakistan’s national priorities and ensure coherent, sustained interventions.
