Climate-resilient farming: FAO-UN, Punjab govt collaborate to launch portal

LAHORE: FAO-UN and Punjab Government Collaborate to Launch Agriculture Climate Water Portal for Climate-Resilient Farming and water management. 

The Country Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in Pakistan, Florence Rolle, and the Chairman of the Planning and Development Board Punjab, Barrister Nabeel Ahmad Awan, have signed a letter of intent to host the Agriculture Climate Water Portal (ACWA).

Developed by the FAO-UN, ACWA Portal provides institutional stakeholders with reliable and up-to-date information to support decisions aimed at mitigating the negative impacts of climate change on agriculture, food security, and rural livelihoods.

The letter of intent signing ceremony was held at the Planning and Development Board here. Secretary Planning and Development Board, Dr Asif Tufail, Project Director of On-Farm Water Management, Malik Muhammad Akram, Project Manager and Technical Adviser of the FAO, Berejena Emelda; and senior officials from various departments of the Punjab Government attended the ceremony. Chief Environment and climate change Saba Asghar moderated the ceremony. Planning and Development Board Punjab, Chairman Barrister Nabeel Ahmad Awan, expressed gratitude to FAO Pakistan and the Green Climate Fund. He highlighted that the ACWA portal would facilitate quick decision-making and policy formulation. He emphasised the provincial government’s commitment to fully utilising IT-based technology to enhance public services, particularly for the farming community.

Barrister Nabeel Ahmad Awan further said that the government welcomes new initiatives from international partners that support government functions and public service. He said that our partnership will yield substantial benefits to farming community and entire population of Punjab.

Florence Rolle, Country Representative of FAO Pakistan, stated that the FAO mission was to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. She said that the ACWA Portal is key output of the green Climate Funds project representing significant innovation as a gateway to access and display data on weather conditions, drought status, water accounting, aquifer vulnerability assessments, aquifer management, evapotranspiration (ET) monitoring, and ET management.

She said that the FAO would install automatic weather stations, eddy covariance flux towers for ET estimation, canal flow monitoring sensors, and groundwater level monitoring sensors under the Green Climate Fund Project in various locations across Punjab. This infrastructure will enable real-time data collection and integration with the ACWA portal & the ACWA Portal will gather information from the Meteorological Department, Irrigation Department, Agriculture Department, Environment Department, Wapda, CRS, On-Farm Water Management, Provincial Disaster Management Authorities, and other relevant departments and organisations. The portal’s dashboard will be accessible to the public for real-time data visibility. She said these initiatives are part of the project, ‘Transforming the Indus Basin with Climate-Resilient Agriculture and Water Management, Punjab and Sindh,’ implemented by the FAO with funding from the Green Climate Fund and co-financing from the provincial governments of Punjab and Sindh.