ISLAMABAD
\nPresident Dr Arif Alvi on Friday stressed the need for joining hands with regional countries and the world to save the globe from droughts and ensure food security.
\nIn his message on the International Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, the president mentioned that many countries around the world, including Pakistan, were experiencing periodic low and unpredictable rainfall.
\nThe president said climate change, degradation of land, deforestation, and overexploitation of farmlands and grasslands were contributing factors to crop failure, water stress, land degradation and low growth performance.
\nThis year\u2019s slogan \u2018Rising up from drought together\u2019, he said, will send a strong message to drought-prone countries to join hands and reiterate their commitment to encourage communities to act together to tackle the immediate impacts of drought and build long-term resilience.
\nPresident Alvi said the drought impact can be mitigated by developing water sources \u2013 such as micro dams, ponds, and wells, water rationing, restoring pastures, and recovering the water holding capacity of soils.
\nHe proposed that the solution lay in tree plantation, protecting riverbanks, shifting to drought-tolerant crops, and relocation of herds from vulnerable pastures.
\n\u201cWe need to adopt cogent drought policies at the federal and provincial levels, launch a well-thought-out and coordinated drought action plan, implement comprehensive drought-management strategies, improve water security through groundwater recharge, create more water reservoirs, ensure water availability, and enhance forest cover throughout the country,\u201d he said.
\nThe president expressed satisfaction that Pakistan was working in many areas to mitigate the impact of drought which include the implementation of a national-level programme to plant 3.29 billion plants over an area of One million hectares in desertification and drought-prone areas.
\nAlso, the launch of the Protected Areas Initiative to preserve the natural flora and fauna and achieving the voluntary Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Targets by 2030 are important areas, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday stressed the need for joining hands with regional countries and the world to save the globe from droughts and ensure food security. In his message on the International Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, the president mentioned that many countries around the world, including Pakistan, were experiencing periodic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[8603],"class_list":{"0":"post-266574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-alvi"},"yoast_head":"\n