Chairman of the Planning and Development Board Punjab Barrister Nabeel Ahmad Awan and The Country Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Pakistan, Ms Florence Rolle, have signed the letter of intent to host the Agriculture Climate Water Portal (ACWA). Developed by the FAO-UN, ACWA Portal provides institutional stakeholders with reliable and up-to-date information to support decisions aimed at mitigating the negative impacts of climate change on agriculture, food security, and rural livelihoods.
The agreement signing ceremony was held at the Planning and Development Board in Lahore, attended by Secretary of the Planning and Development Board, Dr. Asif Tufail; Member Water Dr Abid Bodla, Member Agriculture Mr Aslam Javaid, Member Energy Mr Sadaqat Hussain, Member Education Mr Yawar Hussain, Project Director of On-Farm Water Management, Malik Muhammad Akram; Project Manager and Technical Advisor of the FAO, Berejena Emelda, Chief Environment & CC Ms Saba Asghar and senior officials from various departments of the Punjab Government.
Chariman P&D Board Barrister Nabeel Ahmad Awan, expressed gratitude to FAO Pakistan and the Green Climate Fund. He highlighted that the ACWA portal will facilitate quick decision-making and policy formulation. He emphasized the provincial government's commitment to fully utilizing IT-based technology to enhance public services, particularly for the farming community. The government welcomes new initiatives from international partners that support government functions and public services. He said that our partnership will yield substantial benefits for our farmers, farming community and entire population of Punjab.
Country Rep FAO Pakistan Ms Florence Rolle, stated that the FAO mission is to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. She said that the ACWA Portal is key output of the green Climate Funds project representing significant innovation as a gateway to access and display data on weather conditions, drought status, water accounting, aquifer vulnerability assessments, aquifer management, evapotranspiration (ET) monitoring, and ET management. The FAO will install automatic weather stations, eddy covariance flux towers for ET estimation, canal flow monitoring sensors, and groundwater level monitoring sensors under the Green Climate Fund Project in various locations across Punjab. This infrastructure will enable real-time data collection and integration with the ACWA portal.
The Official of Irrigation and Agriculture said that the ACWA Portal will gather information from the Meteorological Department, Irrigation Department, Agriculture Department, Metrological Department, Environment Department, CRS, On-Farm Water Management, Provincial Disaster Management Authorities, and other relevant departments and organizations. The portal's dashboard will be accessible to the public for real-time data visibility.
Chief Environment & CC Ms Saba Asghar moderated the ceremony.
