Under the program “Building The Policy Ecosystem For Organic Production Landscape In Pakistan”, an Organic Agriculture Policy Review Workshop was organized at NARC, Islamabad. The workshop was conducted by CABI Regional Bioscience Centre Pakistan with the support of Laudes Foundation.
The chief objective of workshop was to bring all the organic agriculture stakeholders on the same page to develop a national-level organic agriculture policy.
The event was attended by all relevant stakeholders including representatives from federal government, Departments of Agriculture Extensions, Punjab, Balochistan, AJK, GB, and MNFS&R, investors, academia, certification bodies, associations, and experts to discuss the current state of organic agriculture policy and make recommendations for its improvement.
While adressing to the workshop, Chairman PARC, Dr. Ghulam Muhammad Ali explained the need and importance of organic agriculture for Pakistan and thanked the organizers for staging the event. Chairman PARC said that a lot of agriculture is already being practiced organically in Pakistan but it needs technical guidance from relevant authorities.
He highlighted the potential for organic agriculture in Balochistan and emphasized on expanding agricultural exports while pointing out that organic products give greater value and we are planning to set up an organic agriculture support facility at NARC.
Chairman PARC said that we should have a local certification authority that has acceptance at international level.
Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Akmal Siddique, Advisor Ministry of National Food Security and Research, said that we all know how to do organic agriculture, but we need to have a policy addressing the true solutions and the policy should be specific, measurable, achievable and time bound. He said that Ministry of National Food Security and Research will pass an exective order to Institutions to develop a division, in which research scientists will develop individual farms on organic cultivation of their crop.
Dr. Akmal emphasized on the need to develop Organic Agriculture Act and Indigenize the certification system. Dr. Yousaf Zafar, former chairman PARC and Senior Advisor/consultant to CABI has informed that Pakistan is on the map of certified organic cotton since 2019 and applauded Balochistan agriculture department for pioneering organic agriculture in Pakistan. The workshop concluded after comprehensive discussion with all relevant stakeholders.
