International Workshop on Strengthening Extension Skills

The University of Agriculture Faisalabad will set up satellite campuses in all parts of the province in order to provide quality agri. education to the dwellers at their doorstep aimed at enhancing agri productivity and to ensure food security. This was announced by UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad while addressing the inaugural session of five-day International Workshop titled Strengthening Extension skills of young professionals in Afghanistan and Pakistan at New Senate Hall on Monday. The workshop is arranged by Office of Research Innovations and Commercialization (ORIC), UAF, in collaboration with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Vice Chancellor said that Pakistan is blessed with four seasons and best cropping system. But, per acre production is very low owing to traditional way of farming. It is the main hurdle to ensure the food security. The modern trends in agriculture must be adopted. He was of the view that Punjab Agriculture University Ludhiana was running 30 sub campuses, increasing awareness among the farming community about latest trend. The University of California is also running ten sub campuses which had become independent institutions. He said the Pakistan’s Punjab is three times larger than Indian Punjab. He said that wheat per acre production in Indian Punjab has been decreased from 52 to 46 kg whereas Pakistani Punjab was obtaining 30 kg wheat production per acre. He said that lack of quality seed, machinery and horse power in Pakistan was hampering the process of increment in production. He said that country in the dire need of devising a mechanism regarding quality certified seed that was a guarantee of bright future. He criticised the BT Cotton seed mafia befooling the innocent farmers by providing fake seed. Dr Jim Hill from the University of California Davis, USA said that agriculture is the backbone of the economies of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He stressed the need to raise the awareness among the farming community in order to achieve the target of food security. He added that the world population will touch the nine billion people by 2050. It is prerequisite to enhance efforts to ensure the food. He said that till now, five workshops on strengthening the extension workers had been arranged by USDA that will help in transferring the knowledge into goods and services. Dr Jerry Peters from Purdue University, USA stressed the need to motivate the farming community to shun the traditional way of farming and shift to modern methods. He said the workshop is training the trainers in order to bring the positive changes in the agri production. Dr Louise Ferguson from the University of California, Davis said that they are also working with women farmers; and transferring the postharvest methods for capacity building. Dr Mark Bell said that people are facing environment and food safety issues. We have to aware the masses in this regard. Dr Grant Dewell from Iowa State University, Dr Chuck Schuster from the University of Maryland, USA, Dr Chris Pannkuk from Washington State University and ORIC Director Prof Dr Asif Ali briefed the audience about the workshop. In the workshop, 14 Afghans and 34 Pakistani extension experts are participating.