Agriculture Action Plan (FATA).

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are considered as the most underdeveloped and food insecure region of Pakistan. They are characterized by extreme isolation, cultural conservatism and adherence to tribal values and practices that have to some extent promoted rivalries amongst the various tribes, leading to features of lawlessness and violence. The rugged and inaccessible topography, limited water resources, high illiteracy and ethnic diversity pose serious challenges for economic growth and human development. Moreover, severe droughts and intermittent insecurity in the last decade have triggered internal migration and further increased the vulnerability of the poor, particularly women and children. In order to sustain adequate standards of living, combat poverty and substantially increase and maintain food security in FATA, it is important to strengthen and enhance the sector of the local economy that currently provides livelihoods for the vast majority of the local population. As indicated earlier, the livelihoods of most of the rural population in FATA depend directly or indirectly on agriculture and its sector environment. The population in these rural communities most affected by the direct and indirect impact of the crisis situation and the return process are nevertheless already amongst the poorest communities in Pakistan and most of them live below the poverty line.
Equally important and critical in such a complex and protracted crisis situation, is creating resilience by reducing risks in preserving and protecting crucial assets and options for food security - i.e. to strengthen the resilience of livelihoods systems to absorb (or cope) and recover in a sustainable way from the impacts of a calamity, reduce risks and mitigate future effects on their food and nutrition security and agro-ecosystems. Consequently, the formulated support to the most vulnerable (affected) farming communities will contribute to the overall achievement of three overarching objectives: Increased levels of food security and rehabilitation of rural livelihoods; Reduction of poverty, enhanced social cohesion and peaceful coexistence; Resilience capacity of affected communities and public sector to anticipate, absorb and recover from external pressures, shocks and crisis, including potential conflict and unrest.
In order to achieve these basic objectives in the areas most affected by the return process, the food security and sector rehabilitation response for agriculture should aim at: optimizing the utilization of resource endowments (sustainable natural resources management: water, land, forest) for increased productivity in agriculture (crops, livestock, and fisheries), and related income and employment on a cost-effective and sustainable basis; overcoming the status of stagnating production levels; based on a secure level of production for home consumption, the farming communities should be given the means to increase production volumes in order to benefit from existing and new markets inside and outside of their region (taking advantage of a value chain approach); and ensuring that emergency/short-term initiatives and medium-term rehabilitation/stabilization efforts are rationally combined in order to form a sound basis for the long-term development of the sector; in this respect, simultaneous institutional building and human resources development will be fundamental for creating the needed implementation capacity and lasting sustainability of public sector services provision, including for crisis prevention, preparedness and mitigation.