A Group Photo of Australian Delegation with the UAF Scientists at Post Harvest Lab of Horticultural Institute

Australian Sector Linkage Program (ASLP) Team headed by David Sweet Kelley visited University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. While briefing the Australian team on Sunday UAF Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan highlighted the Internationalization initiatives in order to promote collaborative research for ensuring global food security. He said that University Scientists were pursuing more than 50 research projects with International and National funding of Rs. 628 million. He was of the view that 88 International memorandum of understanding had been signed by the University in order to paving ways to promote joint collaborative approaches. Vice Chancellor maintained that University was planning to initiate joint degree program with University of Western Australia and a water house chair would also be established at the Campus. He added that germ plasm development of Tomato and Okra had also been carried out with the help of Australian Scientists. The team leader ASLP Phase II David Sweet Kelley said that his team was reviewing the project in order to initiate Phase III with main focus on global food security & cereal production at South Asian level. He added that ACIAR had been providing technical support for the up lift of agricultural & Livestock sector of Pakistan. He was of the view that Post Harvest marketing mechanism was main focus in order to ensure value chain for horticultural production in Pakistan. He urged the need for ensuring food safety in order to minimize pesticide residues by introducing microbiological food safety measures. The delegation later on visited Post Harvest research laboratory and other research spots and lauded the standards of research.