Observer Report
A five members delegation of Rizq-Cargill ecosystem led by Syed Hassan Irfan called on Governor Sindh Imran Ismail here today at Governor’s House.
The other members of the delegation were QasimJavaid, Huzaifa Ahmad, Musa Aamir and Adnan Ismail.
It was informed at the meeting that Rizq and Cargill have come together with the shared goal of ending hunger across Pakistan by setting up a food banking network.
The RizqBank would offer four key services to help eradicate food insecurity and end hunger in slum communities across the country.
This includes RizqDaig, distribution of food within the community, RizqRation, identifying and delivering monthly food supplies to food insecure families and establishing a community center, RizqBachao, collecting, storing and distributing excess food to low-income families and Rizq Future Generation Program, mobilizing youth from schools and universities to support activities of zero waste and zero hunger.
It was further informed that this is to augment the efforts of government’s initiative ‘Ehsaas Koi Bhooka Na Soye’ (EKBNS).
It was further informed that the first-ever Cargill Rizq Bank, in Lyari area, as a model project, has already been setup to create a food secure Lyari by reducing food wastage.
This model once established in Lyari, Karachi will also be replicated at key locations across the Karachi/ SINDH Province.
This will serve as a blueprint for stakeholders in the food ecosystem to come together and create self-sustaining communities.
The Governor Sindh while appreciating the sincere efforts called for making endeavours to reduce and avoid environmental pollution and consume resources sustainably as Environmental pollution and degradation pose additional challenges to the country in terms of food security.
He said developing new sustainable and viable agricultural technologies were the only way we can enhance the country’s food production and boost national food security.
“Our effort is that the more we keep our farmers prosperous, the more [agricultural] productivity will increase,” the Governor said, adding that the federal government now intended to not only help farmers but also facilitate them through research and guidance on seed development and which crop would be best suited for an area.
The Governor said that the government in order to address the issue of malnutrition in children was bringing a nutrition programme through Ehsaas for the first time.
“The pregnant and lactating mothers as well as their weak children registered with this programme through ‘Nashonuma’ centres established at various districts across the country are provided supplementary food packets”, he added.
