ISLAMABAD:The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) along with the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR) organized an inception workshop of the European Union (EU) supported project titled developing capacities in agriculture Innovation System (AIS).
The global three-year EU funded project aims to strengthen the functional capacities of National Agriculture Innovation Systems with focus on climate-relevant, productive, and sustainable transformation of agriculture and food systems. Agriculture Innovation System is a Network of actors or organizations, and individuals, together with supporting institutions and policies in the agricultural and related sectors, that brings existing or new products, processes and forms of organization into social and economic use.
The objective of the inception workshop was to raise awareness on the project objectives, approaches, expected results and set priorities for the project to align it with the government and other organizations’ efforts to strengthen capacities for agricultural innovation. A scoping study has been carried out to identify key innovation actors and their climate- relevant innovation processes in Pakistan. The results of scoping study were presented to validate and to identify the key entry points for detailed assessment of AIS in the light of stakeholders’ feedback.
The Deputy FAO Representative in Pakistan, Mr Farrukh Toirov during his opening remarks highlighted the importance of strengthening the agriculture innovation system with the involvement of private sector stakeholders and informed the participants that it would reap long lasting benefits.
Development Advisor, Agriculture and Climate Change, Delegation of the European Union to Pakistan, Roberto Aparicio Martín emphasized the importance of capacity development and linkage development among stakeholders to achieve the sustainability in the agriculture sector growth.
More than 40 participants from Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, National Agriculture Research Center, provincial extension and research departments, agriculture universities, private sector agriculture technology companies, service providers, representatives from Farmers’ association and international development organization participated in the workshop.