FAISALABAD: The Punjab government has launched a massive project with the assistance of foreign experts to control water wastage and promote modern irrigation techniques like drip irrigation.
Punjab Agricultural Secretary Mushtaq Ahmad announced this here on Monday while addressing issues of environmental degradation and water scarcity faced by the agricultural sector at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF).
He said the Punjab government had also kicked off a project on improving value addition in supply chain to improve Pakistani products and bring them on a par with international standards.
He said time had come to bring absolute green revolution as the country was facing various kinds of threats. “Now, we have to work on green revolution for meeting demand of the growing population touching 180 million.”
Talking about UAF, he suggested that being the mother agricultural institution, the university should strengthen ties with other agricultural universities by sharing knowledge and getting benefit from the experiences of others.
Participants of the meeting agreed to launch a fast-track training programme on Global Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) at UAF in collaboration with the Punjab Agricultural Department for ensuring adoption of World Trade Organisation (WTO) standards and good agricultural practices in order to explore new markets across the globe.
Speaking on the occasion, UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmad stressed the need for increasing investment in higher education as the figure was declining. “Investment directly has an impact on the economy. When investment in education increases, economy also gets a boost,” he said.
However, he expressed concern that only 6% of the country’s population was going for higher education while the ratio in India was 14% and in Malaysia 40%.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 28th, 2012.
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