Natural disaster, land degradation, water and changing climate issue, low productivity and new diseases are aggravating the issue of the food insecurity.

Natural disaster, land degradation, water and changing climate issue, low productivity and new diseases are aggravating the issue of the food insecurity. It was stated by speakers at ongoing International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD) PhD Workshop 2015 with the core concept of ICDD research arranged at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad in which scientists form the eight countries are participating. The workshop was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Talking to the participants, German Scientist Dr Andreas Burkert from University of Kassel, Germany called for making the collaborated efforts on the part of all stakeholders to combat the issue of the food insecurity. He urged the scientists to come up with the innovative ideas to address the issue for welfare of the people. He said interdisciplinary knowledge generation was the need of the hour to face with the emerging issues at the world. He said that ICDD had kicked off second phase from 2015-2019. It is focusing on five core research topics including Decent Work along agricultural values chains; organizing the informal economy; rural welfare ; rural urban linkages; livestock and social protection; and rethinking development cooperation. Dr Christoph Scherrer from University of Kassel, Germany said that the rural urban linkage are vital to make the development and the reduce poverty. He said that the rural population was the worst affected by the poverty. He said that ICDD being the international multi-disciplinary network of universities from four continents including Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe was intensively working on increasing income opportunities for rural and urban population of developing countries Prof Dr Asif Ali said that Asia was the having 570 million people living below the poverty line. He said in Pakistan, agriculture was the backbone of the economy that is directly linked to alleviation of poverty. Dr Izhar Ahmad said that without the involving the social sciences, we can fulfill the target of technological transfer among the farming community . Fatima, Arslan Nawaz, Ashar Faisal, John Oti, Andrew Govan and others present the research project before the panel.