MANHATTAN: UN had designated 12th of May the International Day of Plant Health (IDPH).

The idea was to educate people about benefits of healthy plants. How protecting plant health can end hunger, reduce poverty, protect biodiversity and the environment, and boost economic development.

United Nations maintains that both our health and the health of our planet depend on plants. Plants make up 80% of the food we eat and 98% of the oxygen we breathe and yet they are under threat.

Up to 40% of food crops are lost due to plant pests and diseases every year. This is affecting both food security and agriculture, the main source of income for vulnerable rural communities.

The global body warns that climate change and human activities are altering ecosystems and damaging biodiversity while creating new niches for pests to thrive.

International travel and trade, which has tripled in volume in the last decade, is also spreading pests and diseases.

We need to protect plants both for people and the planet, and all of us have a role to play.

Newspakistan.tv | YouTube Channel