Our Correspondent
Quetta
To contain the impact of lockdown due to COVID19 on food security and nutrition in Balochistan province, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) has upscale its efforts by ensuring that the local communities have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives during the COVID-19 emergency.
The FAO in close collaboration with relevant government of Balochistan line departments and with the support of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), Plant Protection Department and various other stakeholders has been supporting the local authorities in responding to complex emergencies, including the locust outbreak, floods, drought and most recently the COVID-19 crisis and lockdown.
As part of its COVID-19 response, the FAO is playing an active role in assessing and responding to its potential impacts on lives and livelihoods of local communities. FAO is conducting field awareness sessions and is carrying out electronic and print media campaigns for the farmers to help slow the spread of COVID-19 while ensuring that agriculture production can continue under safety standard operating procedures.
Awareness campaigns are underway in various districts of Balochistan in an effort to safeguard livelihoods, markets, food supply chains and livestock of the local communities.
Meanwhile it is reported that three more quarantine centres comprising 1,200 rooms with attached washrooms have been established at Torkham,Taftan and Chaman borders for providing timely health facilities to the patients affected by coronavirus pandemic. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) spokesman, in a statement, Tuesday said the 600 rooms quarantine centre had already been handed over to local administration of Torkham, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
