Bilateral ties: ‘Pakistan, Belgium should collaborate on agricultural research’

UAF is running external research projects costing Rs2 billion, says VC.

FAISALABAD:

Belgian Ambassador Peter Claes on Tuesday stressed the need to foster bilateral academic, agricultural and trade ties.

Addressing a meeting at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), he said the two countries should cooperate to deal with water scarcity and hazards of climate change.

He said the role of universities could not be overlooked in promoting Pakistan’s agrarian economy. Claes praised the UAF for its services for the agriculture sector.

“Pakistan’s population is nearing 200 million… modern farming techniques such as drip irrigation must be used to deal with water scarcity,” he said.

He said the impact of climate change on crops needed to be tackled through progressive research.

The Belgian ambassador said Pakistan and Belgium should collaborate to deal with problems of water scarcity, biomass energy and farm production.

“The population of Belgium is 11 million… the agriculture share of gross domestic product (GDP) is 3 per cent,” he said.

Claes said the agriculture sector had an immense importance across the globe as it provided food security. He said agricultural collaborations between the two countries would lead to progress.

University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Vice Chancellor Iqrar Ahmad Khan said water scarcity was haunting the agriculture sector of the country.

He stressed the need to replace flood irrigation with the drip irrigation.

Khan said collaborations with Belgium would open up new horizons of progress. He said the value chain in Pakistan was a weak area. Belgian cooperation could help change that.

The UAF VC said the university was running an external research projects costing Rs2 billion.

“University of Agriculture, Faisalabad has expedited its outreach programme to transform knowledge gained from research into better goods and services… more than 56,000 students have graduated from the university,” he said.

Khan said the University of Agriculture Faisalabad would continue its efforts to help the country’s agriculture sector and rural economy.

Earlier, the Belgian Ambassador along with Abid Hussain, the trade commissioner at the Belgium Embassy in Pakistan, called on the vice chancellor at his chamber to discuss cooperation.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2014.