Cattle market for farmers planned

Market, to be set up by agri varsity, will eliminate middlemen’s role.

FAISALABAD:

University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) is planning to set up a cattle market in the city, aimed at freeing farmers from middlemen’s exploitation and enabling them to sell cattle directly to customers.

UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmad announced this while chairing a meeting of the university’s finance and planning committee here on Tuesday.

The meeting participants decided to create a pension fund with Rs5 million seed money. They also agreed to make it compulsory for students to undergo practical training with remuneration to equip them with hands-on experience after segregating the budget into 60-40 for students and daily-wage labour.

Voicing concern over high utility charges, the committee underlined the need for arresting the rising trend by keeping a check on electricity consumption at hostels and residential colonies. It asked the management to come up with some mechanism to deal with paucity of funds and utilise the university’s own resources.

Addressing the meeting, Vice Chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmad said despite the financial crunch, UAF had been able to get its mega project costing Rs502 million approved from the Planning Commission, under which the university’s campus at Toba Tek Singh would be upgraded.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2012.