Helping peasants: UAF to set up farmers’ market at Jhang Road

VC says the initiative will protect farmers from exploitation by middlemen.

FAISALABAD: The University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) will set up a market at Jhang Road to save farmers from the exploitation of middlemen, UAF Vice Chancellor Iqrar Ahmad Khan said on Tuesday.

He was chairing a meeting of the UAF Endowment Board of Directors (BoD).



Farmers Association Chief Executive Aafaq Ahmad Tiwana, UAF Registrar Muhammad Hussain, Treasurer Umer Saeed, Chief Planning Officer Natiq Hussain, Endowment Fund Executive Director Zahir Ahmad Zahir, Dr Makhdoom Abdul Jabbar from Punjab Agriculture Research Board (PARB), Australian Linkages Programme Executive Director Ahmad B Mahar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agriculture University’s Dr Rizwan attended the meeting.

“The market will enable farmers to sell their produce directly to customers without relying on middlemen. The UAF is already running a farmers’ market near Ghulam Muhammadabad. Similar markets will be established in other districts where sub-campuses of the UAF are functioning,” he said.

Referring to the damage caused by fruit flies, he said that a national campaign was needed to fight the pest.

“The University of Agriculture Faisalabad will organise an international conference on fruit flies for drafting policy recommendations for the government,” he said.

“We can earn foreign exchange by exporting our agriculture produce to other countries. Mangoes grown in our country are in high demand abroad,” he said.

He said that the University of Agriculture Faisalabad was taking steps to educate the farming community about the latest agriculture practices through an SMS service.

“The world is making great strides in agriculture with the use of precision agriculture. We lag behind in this field because our farmers have been slow to adopt the technology,” he said.

Tiwana said that there were 8,000 farmers’ markets in the United States. He stressed the need to adopt the mechanism in Pakistan to benefit the farmers.

Talking about precision agriculture, he said that it could help reduce sowing cost.

The meeting approved Rs110.9 million for the endowment fund.

Dr Zahir said that the amount would be spent on technology transfer to farmers.

“Tangible research and development activities are needed in this regard. Commercialisation of the products will boost agricultural productivity,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2014.