Sino-Pak cooperation in agriculture, food security strengthened: Rabbia Nasir

SANYA, CHINA:

Factors of production in the agriculture sector of Pakistan and China can be complementary to each other. Both countries need to strengthen cooperation in agriculture and food security to achieve a win-win solution.

These remarks were made by Rabbia Nasir, Third Secretary of the Embassy of Pakistan in China, while attending the 2022 China Seed Congress and the Nanfan Agricultural Silicon Valley Forum recently.

As good neighbours and all-weather strategic cooperative partners, Pakistan and China have been working together to ensure food security with food being one of the major sources of trade between the two countries.

According to Chinese customs statistics, Pakistan exported $610 million of agricultural products to China in the first half of 2022, up 30.85% year-on-year. Among them, rice exports amounted to $345 million.

Chinese investors are also investing more and more in Pakistan’s agriculture sector. Both countries are engaged in agricultural cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative.

To further enhance agricultural cooperation and food security, “we should make the most of the complementary factors of production in agriculture of both countries,” Nasir affirmed.

For instance, Pakistan could contribute a friendly policy of affordable factors of production, abundant agricultural products and investment in food processing, she cited and highlighted that China could share its experience with Pakistan in training, agricultural modernisation, cold chain technology, logistics, seed technology and agricultural demonstration areas.

As per data of the World Economic Forum, the global food security challenge is straightforward as by 2050 the world must feed nine billion people. The demand for food will be much greater than it is today.