Duo of young Pakistani researchers wins WFF’s Transformative Research Challenge

PESHAWAR: A two-member team of young researchers from Pakistan have won the prestigious Transformative Research Challenge (TRC) hosted by the World Food Forum (WFF).

The WFF organizes TRC to inspire research and innovation in sustainable development to end hunger and transform the agri food systems.

The researchers, Sidra Khalid and Najeeb Ullah, are associated with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) as senior research officers — Gender and Social Inclusion, Monitoring-Evaluation and Learning Specialist, respectively.

IWMI is a research for development organization operating in more than 30 countries on water and land management challenges faced by poor communities in developing countries.

Both Sidra and Najeebullah are among the eight finalists who were chosen from 162 entrants for their outstanding research on improved fish farming in Pakistan.
They won the special prize for their research pitch on ‘Transforming nutritional practices and livelihoods through improved fish farming in Pakistan’ under the TRC category, ‘Better Life’.

“Saline aquaculture is not a major sector right now in Pakistan, but there’s a lot of potential for it to grow, including opportunities for women and youth to be involved. And it easily lent itself to this year’s TRC theme,” explained Sidra Khalid while talking to APP.

“Because of rising salinity levels due to climate change, most farmers involved in freshwater aquaculture in Pakistan have lost their livelihoods. In this context, saline aquaculture provides an alternative means of livelihood,” she elaborated.

“Around 40,000 acres of land per year is being affected by secondary salinity in Pakistan. One cannot grow on salinized land, but farmers can easily counter this issue by switching to saline aquaculture because there’s plenty of groundwater that is saline in the region,” said Najeeb while corroborating the viewpoint of Sidra.

These practices can be strengthened through capacity building, providing farmers with incentives, ensuring the necessary structures are in place, improving water quality, and equipping farmers with improved fish species that are saline resistant, he suggested.

In response to a question about the suggestion of ‘circular economy’ as one of the solutions mentioned in the research approach for a better environment, Najeeb explained that the concept means that one makes use of all existing materials so nothing in the farm will go to waste.

“The farmers require proper training in order to initiate these circular economy practices,” he went on to say.

In the pitch, they proposed a holistic research intervention including developing a circular economy system for better environment, introducing improved fish species for better production, upgrading farmers’ technical capacity for better income and life, and implementing behavior change nutritional counseling to improve the uptake of healthier diets.

They claimed that if their suggestions are successfully implemented it will result in supporting farmers to make respectable earning, improved health of family members and help them adapt to Pakistan’s changing climate landscape.

Both the young researchers expressed the hope that their TRC pitch will help them get funding to take this research further and improve fish farming in the country.