1a.Objectives (from AD-416)
Provide the expertise and knowledge to support efforts to improve food security in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

1b.Approach (from AD-416)
The Trilateral Food Security Working Group will establish programs and projects to improve food availability and food access, increasing nutritional consumption and income generation by vulnerable Afghans and Pakistanis. Develop research collaborations with partners in Afghanistan and Pakistan to study diseases of livestock, including Brucella and Foot and Mouth Disease.

3.Progress Report

The Trilateral Working Group (WG) on Food Security continues to press on to foster engagement between the Afghan and Pakistani Ministries of Agriculture in areas that promote food security. In 2010, the WG developed a list of proposed activities that support the priorities identified by Afghanistan and Pakistan WG members; this included wheat improvement, animal health, plant pathology and disease surveillance and management, and extension. Following the Doha Conference the working group began implementing this action plan. The WG has held two bilateral activities and one trilateral activity since the Doha Conference. A Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Conference was held on February 2010, in Islamabad, Pakistan funded by U.S. Department of State’s Bioengagement Program, coordinated by the USDA and hosted by the Pakistani Ministry of Livestock and Dairy Development. In September 2010, the U.S., Afghan, and Pakistani members of the WG met again in Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss progress. Priorities were identified in the sub-groups of animal production and health; extension and capacity building; and crop production and protection. Members of the WG with expertise in animal health are currently planning a survey of brucellosis infection among livestock in Afghanistan and Pakistan, beginning with a training workshop to be held in Islamabad in 2012. Since the last WG meeting in September 2010, the Afghanistan FSWG has added a member with specific, technical animal health expertise. Additionally, the Trilateral Secretariat funded a consortium of U.S. land-grant universities to conduct agricultural extension training in partnership with stakeholders in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), which is now ongoing. This program will help strengthen the extension and delivery systems of Afghanistan and Pakistan to better meet the needs of farmers and the rural poor. USDA is working with partners throughout the U.S. government to ensure that the Trilateral WG activities are aligned with, and support, other regional and bilateral cooperation with Afghanistan and Pakistan. USDA FAS and ARS are working with Pakistan and Afghanistan on bilateral and multilateral research initiatives to improve the country’s capacity to prevent and control wheat stem rust and other important wheat diseases. ARS and APHIS are working with the Department of State and counterparts in Afghanistan and Pakistan to support Afghanistan’s and Pakistan’s national programs to control Brucellosis and foot and mouth disease.