Community service: Online advisory service for farmers launched

As part of programme, UAF faculty will interact with farmers to resolve their problems

FAISALABAD: In order to provide online advisory service to farmers, a Community Outreach Centre has been established in Chak 272, Faisalabad on Tuesday.

The centre was jointly set up by US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security and University of Agriculture Faisalabad.

Union Council 165 Chairperson Azhar Saeed Kashif inaugurated the centre.

While addressing the participants, he said the farming community will be able to seek innovative solutions to their problems through this centre. He added the information and communication technologies had changed the scenario of the modern world. He opined the centre will help farmers to address agriculture and livestock problems.

Meanwhile, UAF Associate Professor Dr Izhar Ahmad Khan said the programme will provide services to the rural community in Faisalabad. He added under the programme, UAF faculty will interact with farmers to provide solution to their problems and they will also answer questions through internet.

Earlier in 2015, the University of Agriculture Faisalabad introduced a similar system, an e-farming system – the first of its kind in Pakistan – to educate the farmers and help them obtain maximum yield and profits.

The project was made functional in all districts of Punjab, where farmers contacted agriculture experts, researchers and analysts to receive advice on extracting better yield of crops.

A survey conducted by the Punjab e-farming department a few years back found the average wheat yield at only 23 maunds per acre in Pakistan– less than half of the world average.

Annual reports and survey of the e-farming team show that farmers who were getting 20 maunds per acre of cotton yield on average, received 40 after the introduction of new technologies.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2016.