University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan on Thursday said that rural population must be provided state-of-the-art facilities including modern education, health and business markets at their doorstep in order to reduce massive migration towards metropolises.

University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan on Thursday said that rural population must be provided state-of-the-art facilities including modern education, health and business markets at their doorstep in order to reduce massive migration towards metropolises. He was talking to National Institute of Management Karachi mid-career delegation led by Lt col (r) Ijaz Ahmad at the Syndicate Room, UAF. He said massive migrating is being witnessed in rural population towards big cities for availing the facilities, resulting in increasing slums. The fertile agricultural land was being converted into residential colonies, he said, adding that new small cities also be established because increasing size of metropolises is aggravating the problems. He said that a century ago, three markets had been established including Sargodha (then Shahpur), Faisalabad (then Lyallpur) and Sahiwal (then Montgomery). New markets on the same pattern in different part of country need to be set up to meet the demands of the local inhabitants. Talking about the rural community, he told that as many as 92 percent of farming community are the small farmers. He said the tangible steps are needed to disseminate the modern agri practices and to address their problems. He said that South Korea adopted our model of the Village Aid Programme. He said such models were need of the hours for the rural development and flourish agri sector that would retain the rural population in their areas. Talking about the water issue, he said we need to bring forth its social and engineering solutions. More water reservoirs, and awareness among the public about water conservation method will reduce water calamities including floods and droughts. He said that the university was focusing on polishing the skills among the students as a step towards curb unemployment. He said that we are preparing the skilled manpower not only for industry but also become the self employed/ entrepreneur.