Thumbnail Image

Pakistan and FAO: Achievements and Success Stories

Year of publication 2011

Pages 33 p.

Product type Document

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) Within one month of gaining its independence, Pakistan joined FAO on 7 September 1947, the first UN body it joined, clearly signalling the high priority assigned to developing its agriculture sector. The first agreement between FAO and the government was for technical assistance in agricultural policy and planning in June 1951. FAO support to the government was coordinated through UNDP until the accreditation of an FAO Representative to Pakistan in 1978. Agriculture is a mainstay of the Pakistan economy, although it has been declining as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) as the country’s industrial and service sectors have grown. Agriculture accounted for 21 percent of GDP in 2010, compared to 36 percent in 1980. The sector provided livelihoods for 45 percent of the population in 2010, down from 53 percent three decades earlier. Pakistan’s food security rests upon its wheat production. The country produced 24 million tonnes of wheat in 2010, compared with 11.6 million tonnes a year in the early 1980s. Wheat has helped feed a population that has grown to 174 million people from 85 million in 1980. Rice production has more than doubled over the same period, rising to 7 million tonnes from 3.3 million tonnes, and is now a major export crop earning US$2.2 billion in foreign exchange. Cotton has become a major industrial feedstock, with production increasing to 12 million bales in 2010, up from 4.5 million bales in the early 1980s. Livestock production has also substan tially increased to a value of US$758.604 million from US$51.51 million in 1980. Livestock exports totalled US$37.46 million in 2010, compared to US$1.170 million three decades ago. FAO has been at the government’s side throughout this process of development, implementing 573 projects worth US$314 million that have provided support to policy development, capacity building and pilot and key demonstration projects. Pakistan is a pilot country for the One UN system and FAO has been at the forefron t of developing the approach that ensures the highest priority is given to the agriculture sector in line with the government’s priorities.

Language English

Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Document
    Thailand and FAO: Achievements and Success Stories 2011
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    Thailand became a member of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on 27 August 1947. Over the last three decades, and moving gradually from a recipient into a donor country, Thailand has contributed significantly to FAO to fulfil its mandates. The keen interest and personal involvement of Thailand’s Royal Family in agricultural and rural development in the country have been crucial elements of the evolving partnerships between Thailand and FAO. In this connection, FAO has a warded the Ceres Medal to Her Majesty the Queen in 1979, and the Agricola and TeleFood Medals to His Majesty the King in 1995 and 1999, respectively. There are, moreover, special projects initiated by the government such as the debt restructuring scheme, the village fund, the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) fund, and the universal healthcare scheme supporting the operation. Over the past half century, Thailand’s agricultural sector has moved beyond self-sufficiency to making the nation a major food exporter. Today, Thailand plays an important role as a regional food centre and ‘kitchen of the world’, feeding its own population and contributing to the food security of people in and outside of Asia. Indeed, Thailand stands as the world number one exporter of rice sharing over 30 percent of the global rice trade volume, in addition to canned tuna fish, natural rubber, etc. FAO’s direct support – or field programme in Thailand – was initially mainly supported by UNDP which had provided s ince 1950 some US$50 million for financing 136 FAO implemented projects till the early 1990s. In addition, FAO’s Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) – funded from the Organization’s own regular programme – started in 1977. Since then 105 full-scale and close to 20 small-scale TCP Facility projects with a combined budget of approximately US$14 million have been approved by the FAO Director-General. Another financing modality for field programmes started in 1997, the worldwide TeleFood Special F und, under which Thailand implemented 36 projects until now with a total budget of about US$260 000. Finally, 17 donor funded Trust Fund projects were implemented – both long-term and emergency – since the 1980s with a total budget of US$5.1 million. In overall, 314 projects have been or are being implemented by FAO in Thailand with a total budget of US$70 million. In addition, Thailand has benefitted from nearly 100 global/regional projects in which the country participated.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Document
    Philippines and FAO: Achievements and Success Stories 2011
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    The Philippines is one of the 34 charter member nations that founded FAO in Quebec City, Canada on 16 October 1945. The first FAO operations in the Philippines started in 1959 under the auspices of the United Nations Special Fund and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). FAO activities in the Philippines gradually increased over the years, and complemented government’s efforts through technical and development interventions in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, forestry and rural d evelopment. The Philippines has always taken a keen interest in the work of FAO because of its mandate and the country’s strong traditions in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, nutrition and rural development. In view of FAO’s expanding programme in the country, and in order to better serve its target clientele, an FAO Representative Office was established in the Philippines on 1 January 1978. In more than three decades of cooperation between the Philippine government and FAO, a multitude of FAO supported projects have been implemented in the country in close partnerships with the Departments (Ministries) of Agriculture (DA), Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Agrarian Reform (DAR), and Science and Technology (DOST) in addition to a number of state universities and colleges. Coordinating the preparation and implementation of various projects is done through the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), or the central planning agency, to minimize duplication and overlapp ing activities with other multilateral and bilateral donor agencies. Among the past FAO-assisted projects in the Philippines are those on Coconut Research and Development, Multiple-Use Forestry, Aquaculture Development and Training, Soils and Land Resources Appraisal and Training, Agro-Forestry, Forestry Education, Small Farmers Development, Carabao (WaterBuffalo) Research and Development, Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, Integrated Pest Management, Food Security and Nutrition, Control of Animal Diseases, Master Plan for Forestry Development and many others. To date, FAO has implemented a total of 393 national projects, of which 130 were funded by TCP, 99 by UNDP, 114 by Trust Fund, 18 by TeleFood, 5 by Unilateral Trust Fund (UTF), 4 by Freedom from Hunger Campaign, 20 by UNFPA, and 3 are joint programmes funded by UNDP and JICA. Total FAO assistance for all the national projects amounted to around US$102.4 million. In addition, the Philippines also benefitted from other FAO regi onal and inter-regional projects.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Document
    Timor-Leste and FAO: Achievements and Success Stories 2011
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    As one of Asia’s smallest and poorest nations, Timor-Leste is relying on international assistance to help build the capacity of the nation. While 90 percent of Timor-Leste’s one million people depend on subsistence farming and fishing to make a living, the country’s infrastructure is poor and its agriculture suffers from frequent drought. The tiny half-island country – the other half belongs to Indonesia – has no industry to speak of and produces hardly anything for export. Annual per capita inc ome is only US$431, and one in three households live below the poverty line. On a more promising note, vast offshore oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea hold great potential for the country. Natural gas could eventually earn as much as US$180 million a year. At present the Petroleum Fund is about US$6 billion. But for now, Timor-Leste is ranked as a lower-middle-income economy. It continues to suffer the after-effects of a decades-long independence struggle that damaged its infrastructure and di splaced thousands of civilians. The country ranks 120th out of 169 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI). FAO has been implementing emergency relief and rehabilitation activities in Timor-Leste since 1999, and established an Emergency Coordination Unit in Dili in 2000. FAO’s emergency activities include food security, bio-security, strengthening animal health services, nutrition, post-harvest management practices, forestry, fisheries and capacity development. Timor-Leste also benefits f rom FAO’s Initiative on Soaring Food Prices (ISFP), a global programme launched in 2008 to assist countries reeling from the rapidly rising prices of food commodities. Total FAO support to Timor-Leste amounts to US$38.5 million through 34 emergency and technical assistance national projects. In addition, Timor-Leste has been a participant in three regional and global programmes from FAO.
Show more

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.