Australia has a 70-year development assistance relationship with Pakistan.
“Despite its contribution to GDP halving over the last decades, agriculture is still 18% of Pakistan’s GDP and remains key to economic stability. With two-thirds of the population living in rural areas, the agriculture sector engages around 67% women while overall employment is 38% of the national labour force. The sector constitutes 53% of total exports of the country.:- ACIAR
The ACIAR program with Pakistan is based on:
- the recognition that water and food security are critical to Pakistan’s long-term stability
- Australia’s global expertise in areas that are high priority concerns for Pakistan
- Pakistan’s strong network of researchers that can collaborate with Australian researchers on water, food security and rural poverty alleviation
- a platform of a long research collaboration, which is highly valued by both countries.
A team of Australian experts visited farmers in Sindh after the deadly flood swamped farms and crops. The visit was arranged by ACIAR Pakistan aiming to help local farmers tackle salinity in agricultural landscapes.
