A Pak-Korea Nutrition Center would be set up at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad that will enable the country arrest the growing malnutrition; a major cause of poor health of the people.

The assertion was made by a Korean Prof. Dr. Jahen Kim who is visiting the varsity in connection with an international seminar on role of nutrition in child and maternal health organized by National Institute of Food Science & Technology in collaboration with Pakistan Society of Food Scientists and Technologists and Pakistan Nutrition & Dietetic Society held at NIFSAT Seminar Room here on Friday. A five-year project worth 7 million USD would be set up with the help of Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). He said that this project would help the varsity to ensure good health of mother and child that, he added, would make the nation productive and healthy that can contribute upto 3 percent to GDP rather than spending billions of rupees in dealing with health related problems. UAF Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ashraf (HI, SI) described the proposed center of excellence with the help of Korean agency, a soothing initiative of Pak-Korea friendship under its Internationalization programs. He said the varsity was signing MOUs with International Organizations thereby to expand its foreign networking. He said that full-fledge center of health and nutrition will become a hub of promising activities to deal with the issues of malnutrition and health related problems. He expressed his dismay over the poor health and nutrition index of the country and stressed upon diversifying the food by not banking only on wheat and rice adding that wheat is deficient in iron, zinc and important amino-acids, and the same is the case with rice. He said that we need to fulfill the requirements of having substantial amount of 10 essential amino acids that would only be ensured by changing the food habits and priorities. Giving the example of Chinese people, he said that they have made some headway by switching over to maize while leaving behind wheat and rice due to high yielding and three crops of maize in a year. He told that government is emphasizing on nutrition as it is very much prominent in its Ehsaas Program. He hoped that with the help of this center, we well be able to complement the government efforts in arresting the growing malnutrition. Dean Faculty of Food Sciences, Nutrition and Home Sciences Dr. Masood Sadiq Butt said that 50 percent of population was facing malnutrition. The education about nutritive and balanced food at school level will help overcome the issue. He said that vitamin D deficiency at high with 60 percent; vitamin A 45 percent whereas maternal anemia deficiency stands at 49 and child stunting level 43 percent. He said that healthy food was essential for the mental and physical growth of the students. He urged people to use balances usage of diet and to adopt the physical activities in their daily lives.