Moot discusses water management

Experts share ideas for storing, using runoff water

ISLAMABAD: Agriculturists will pore over the possibility of using runoff water for farming during a three-day conference at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR).

Agricultural runoff is water leaving farm fields because of rain, melted snow, or irrigation. As runoff moves, it picks up and carries pollution, which it can deposit into ponds, lakes, coastal waters, and underground sources of drinking water.

Agricultural runoff can include pollution from soil erosion, animal waste, pesticides and fertiliser.



The international conference on Training and Capacity Building in Sustainable Agricultural Water Management to Address Food Security and Social Instability in Pakistan which commenced at PMAS-AAUR on Wednesday will discuss putting runoff to use.

The objective of the training was to increase food productivity and security in context of local, regional and economic development of Pakistan using the different and new techniques to harvest, store and use runoff water for the sustainable agricultural water management.

The inaugural session of the conference was chaired by PMAS-AAUR Vice Chancellor Prof Sarwat Mirza while Italian Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo was chief guest.

The session was attended by foreign delegates, researchers, scholars, farmers, mid-level government policy makers, extension agents in the field of environment, agriculture & natural resources, faculty members and a large numbers of students.

The conference was organised by PMAS-AAUR Department of Environmental Sciences in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC), Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (IADC) and National Research Council (CNR) Italy.

Ambassador Pontecorvo showed commitment to continue the project and expressed his interest for the assistance in the field of water rationalisation through Italian-Pakistan partnership.



According to him Pakistan has issue of water management instead of non-availability also agricultural water management is the one very effective way to deal with the enormously diminishing level of water and suggested the correct water management practices and awareness programmes on the usage of water in order to cope with the dilemma.

He also lauded the efforts of the whole team for the achievement of desired objectives and for the socio-economic uplift of agriculture in Pakistan expressed his every support and assistance.

PMAS-AAUR Vice Chancellor Prof Mirza stressed the need of managing the country’s water resources in a more efficient, equitable and sustainable way to meeting agricultural production challenges, including increasing agricultural productivity and adapting to climate change.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2018.