Report To The 20th Standing Committee Of Ministers Of Agriculture Scma

The report presents the latest assessment of global trends in wildlife crime. It includes discussions on illicit rosewood, ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales, live reptiles, tigers and other big cats, and European eel. The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has highlighted that wildlife crime is a threat not only to the environment and biodiversity, but also to human health, economic development and security. Zoonotic diseases - those caused by pathogens that spread from animals to humans - represent up to 75% of all emerging infectious diseases. Trafficked wild species and the resulting products offered for human consumption, by definition, escape any hygiene or sanitary control, and therefore pose even greater risks of infection.

While wheat procurement policy is a central part of Pakistan’s agricultural policy, a brief description of its impact does not make for easy reading: it has a high budget cost, has led to a buildup of debt, distorts markets, provides little direct benefit to small farmers and productivity in Pakistan’s wheat sector continues to lag. Furthermore, as Pakistan has gradually moved to producing a wheat surplus, a trend that is likely to continue in the future, the current policy set is likely to become more unsustainable in the future, with the task of squaring the circle between supporting farm incomes, providing fair consumer prices and delivering food security becomes increasingly difficult without reform.