Coordinated efforts stressed to meet food security challenges

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Food, Zahir Shah Toru on Wednesday stressed the importance of a coordinated approach to address the various challenges related to food security.

Speaking at the second conference on food security, he underscored the need for the departments of agriculture, population, irrigation, and food to work under an integrated system to effectively manage these challenges.

He emphasized the significance of learning from and benefiting from each other’s good practices and experiences.During his address, the provincial minister informed the conference participants that the annual wheat production of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stands at 1.5 million metric tons, whereas the province’s annual requirement is 5 million metric tons.

To meet this shortfall, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa procures wheat from Punjab. He also pointed out that the provincial government has a storage capacity of 500,000 metric tonnes for wheat, but emphasized the urgent need to upgrade these storage facilities to modern standards to safeguard the stock effectively.

Zahir Shah Toru also shed light on the procurement process of wheat, stating that the provincial government acquires wheat through government-to-government agreements, directly from farmers, and from PASCO.