Water management: From barren to blooming land

Workshop at PMAS-AAUR to help Balochistan farmers increase yields


Our Correspondent December 24, 2014

RAWALPINDI: A ten-day training workshop aiming to help convert barren lands in Balochistan into productive units through interventions involving new techniques of irrigation, commenced on Tuesday at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR).

The workshop on “Water Resource Management” has 38 participants from Balochistan including both male and female agriculture department staffers, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) staff and farmers. It is the fourth such workshop at PMAS-AAUR and being organised in collaboration with FAO and Australian Assistance to Agriculture in Balochistan Border Areas (AusAABBA).

The training included lectures, practical sessions and field exposure visits conducted by agriculture experts from PMAS-AAUR and FAO. This training would also help improve livelihoods and the income-generation capacity of small growers in the province.

“We need to adopt modern irrigation techniques with concepts of more crop-per-drop and preserve water to get maximum benefits from the available resources,’ PMAS-AAUR Vice Chancellor Dr Rai Niaz Ahmad said while talking to the participants.

He added that it was time to create awareness among people and farmers about water scarcity and need-oriented utility of water resources.

He suggested that we should collectively work to overcome the water issue. He also stressed to promote water management system and urged the participants to overcome the sacristy of water.

Dr Ahmad stressed on the need for enhancing spending on agriculture and food research and dissemination of new knowledge and technologies to farmers to help boost agriculture produce.

On the training course, he said that it will help to strengthen the Balochistan’s farmer’s technical capacity in on-farm water management and enhance sustainable agriculture productivity. He urged scientists of the university to work hard to fight with the challenges of water availability and food security.

Earlier, National Expert Water Resource Management Malik Aijaz Hussain Awan gave a brief introduction about the FAO and Australian Aid Agriculture Project.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2014.

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