Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA)-ICBA Ink MoU To Promote Climate Smart Agriculture In KP

The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Board of Investment and Trade (KP-BOIT) Tuesday joined hands to work together and strengthen cooperation in areas of common interest.

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th May, 2018 ) :The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) board of Investment and Trade (KP-BOIT) Tuesday joined hands to work together and strengthen cooperation in areas of common interest.

The agreement was reached through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed by Dr. Ismahane Elouafi, Director General of ICBA, and Nazir Ahmad Awan, CEO Secretary of KP-BOIT the other day at ICBA headquarters in Dubai said a press release issued here on Tuesday.

Final outcome was in response to the visit of Faisal Saleem Rahman, Vice Chairman, KP-BOIT and Nawaz Shangla to ICBA, series of meeting with ICBA authorities and similar visit of Horticulture and Climate Scientists of ICBA to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in March, 2018.

The main purpose of the MoU is to strengthen cooperation between ICBA and KP-BOIT in areas of common interest, but not limited to climate-smart agriculture for climate change adaptation in KP province; crop, soil and water management in marginal environments, especially in salt-affected areas in KP province; extreme climate events impact assessment and management, especially drought; projects development and implementation in the agricultural sector in KP province; biosaline agro forestry using association cropping of salt tolerant trees and grasses; and water harvesting techniques especially in thesouth.

As an applied agricultural research center, ICBA has been working to address current and future risks and problems in marginal areas.

Since 1999, the center has been identifying, testing and piloting resource-efficient, climate-smart crops and technologies in salt-affected, water-scarce and drought-vulnerable regions around the world.

As a result, ICBA has accumulated extensive applied experience and developed tailor-made solutions to the problems of salinity, water scarcity and drought. The center is uniquely positioned to introduce much-needed climate-smart crops and technologies in different parts of the world to alleviate projected food and water crises.

In its genebank, ICBA is home to world's largest collections of germplasm exclusively dedicated to heat- and salt-tolerant plant species. The gene bank preserves over 14,000 accessions of around 240 plant species from more than 150 countries and territories of the world.

The center targets some of the poorest communities in regions where agriculture is the main livelihood but is failing due to salinity, water scarcity and drought.

The MOU signed between ICBA and KP-BOIT is first of its nature in the history of Pakistan. It is likely to develop and monitoring collaborating activities in promotion of climate smart Agriculture, Soil &Water management in marginal environments, specially in salt affected areas inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa.