UAF NEWS

University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan has shown his concern that the agriculture sector had been facing stagnation for a couple of decades.

The agriculture sector had lost its profitability due to non-adopting of modern trends, compelling the rural populations to shift to other professions that may provoke food insecurity. He addressed the scientists of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad at Iqbal Auditorium. Punjab Agricultural Research Board Chief Executive Dr Abid Mehmood also spoke as guest of honor. Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan urged the scientists to work on the real issues of the farming community to address the issue of the food security and hunger. He said that with the passage of the time, the agriculture land area was shrinking . He stressed upon the need to develop tangible research projects and to present it before the funding agencies keeping the demands of the farming community in view. He said the country was far lagging behind in the mechanical plantation and harvesting that were prerequisite for productivity enhancement. He said that although we are an agricultural country, but we were importing the pulses and edible oil worth billions of rupees. He said that amid the situation of Covid 19, the UAF was ensuring the foolproof arrangement for the online teaching situation by adopting all possible tools. He said that as per directives of the government, the translation of Quran as a compulsory subject would be implemented soon after the approval from Academic Council . Dr Abid Mehmood urged the agricultural experts to come up with the viable solutions to agricultural sector keeping the increasing productivity, value addition, water scarcity, mechanization, post-harvest and other issues in view. He said that the University scientists had won one fourth of the research projects from the PARB. He directed them to work on the real issue of the agriculture and to present their proposal before them for funding. He added that the Director ORIC Dr Zahir Ahmad Zahir also spoke.