The recent floods have not only damaged lives, personal possessions, and property but also had a negative impact on the agriculture sector. In terms of GDP growth, Pakistan’s agriculture sector is crucial for the nation’s economic prosperity and is regarded as its foundation pillar. Pakistan’s agriculture sector was already suffering through multiple challenges including a lack of modernization, inefficiency, and poor growth. However, the effects of global warming and climate change have further aggravated the situation downgrading it from poor to worse. The most shocking demonstration of climate change’s detrimental impact on agriculture was witnessed during the recent floods that wreaked havoc across the country.
According to the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, more than 8 million acres of crops, including rice, cotton, pulses, oil seeds, and vegetables, have been impacted by these floods. Due to the damage caused by these floods, not only has it become challenging to meet the country’s food demand, but the potential income from agricultural exports is also expected to decrease manifold. Pakistan is the fourth largest exporter of rice in the world and according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan exported a record value of rice worth $2.5 billion during the financial year 2021-22, while this year the rice crop has been badly affected due to floods.
During this difficult time, Fatima Fertilizer is at the forefront of helping distressed farmers. The company is providing all possible support to the farmers and helping them to cope with the ongoing challenges. A good example of this is the ‘Kissan Day’ initiative which was originally proposed by Fatima Fertilizer on December 18 2019 with the purpose of recognizing and paying tribute to the contributions of Pakistani farmers for the first time across the country.
The vision behind celebrating Kissan Day was to provide a platform for farmers to highlight their ongoing issues/challenges while engaging stakeholders and policymakers in a dialogue to come up with possible solutions which can also benefit these farmers. The Federal Government also recognized December 18 as ‘Kissan Day’ to be celebrated every year, which was a significant achievement not only for Fatima Fertilizer but also for the entire farmers’ community of Pakistan.
Celebrating this day is of great importance for the welfare of the rural community, and had become even more important considering the severe distress caused to small-scale farmers by the wrecking floods. As part of the Kissan Day celebrations, Fatima Fertilizer takes a lead to organize national-level events to appreciate the farmers and boost their motivation to continue playing a pivotal role towards the protection of our food security and supporting the economy. Celebrating Kissan Day is also important because, through dialogue and stakeholder discussions, various issues related to farmers and farming methods get highlighted in media for the attention of government and private sector stakeholders to mutually engage in a problem-solving partnership and tackle the pressing challenges.
The fourth Kissan Day is being celebrated this year as well with a more enhanced zest and fervor to reiterate the message of appreciating the small-scale farmers and highlighting their current challenges. Some of these challenges are related to resolving their financial independence, offering them a level playing field, and ensuring their profitability for their economic growth and stability. The importance of farmers in growing the economy and protecting our food security cannot be denied. Agricultural experts say that farmers play a pivotal role in Pakistan’s economy and the government can achieve better results by providing facilities and incentives to farmers. By making the farmers more confident and increasing their commitment to work, the agriculture sector can set the pace for the rapid growth of our country.
Fatima Fertilizer is striving hard to tackle the issue of climate change and its negative impact on agriculture. The company is enacting its vision of transforming the country’s agriculture model by modernizing the sector through the use of the latest technologies and precision farming methods. A good example of this is the Sarsabz Pakistan Mobile App for farmers, which has recently marked a record number of more than one hundred thousand downloads in a short time span of ten months, making it the country’s fastest-growing mobile app within the agriculture sector and the top-rated educational app on Google Playstore. The Sarsabz Pakistan app caters to multiple needs of the farming community, providing them with timely farm advisory and information updates on important topics including climate change, weather forecasts, and more to help maximize their crop yield and productivity.
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