As many as 50 percent of children are facing malnutrition for which one egg and two dates should be provided in the schools for each student by government and private educational institutions that will help lead towards a healthy society.

As many as 50 percent of children are facing malnutrition for which one egg and two dates should be provided in the schools for each student by government and private educational institutions that will help lead towards a healthy society. It was stated by Syed Babar Ali, Pro Chancellor Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). He chaired a meeting of agricultural experts at syndicate room and later attended a seminar on the role of women in the livestock sector. He stressed upon need for value-addition to agricultural produce to grab international standards. He said that Pakistani mango is well demanded across the globe due to its aroma and taste. We have to put our focus on meeting the demand of world standards with value addition. He said that country was blessed with tremendous resources in the agriculture He said that the agriculturists should develop model farms of mango, citrus and dates that can be replicated. He said the country could not achieve the uplift in the society without involving women in socioeconomic activities and bringing them into mainstream. He said that empowerment of women was vital to get sustainable development and to fight the challenges confronted the society. He said girls should be encouraged to study higher level and to play their active role in the development of the county. He said that the agriculture was the backbone of our economy and 50 percent of agriculture was depending upon livestock sector. He asked the students to keep thinking out of the box about various steps of agricultural supply and value chain and identify the issues to be taken care of, to become entrepreneurial in that respect. He urged the experts to evolve a demand driven strategy to meet the challenges in their respective domain. He said agriculture has plenty of potential to employ and absorb thousands of young professionals in the emerging businesses starting right from farm gate to the dining table of the consumers. UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that unfortunately, the majority of Pakistani dates were of inferior quality. If we initiate value addition, we can earn foreign exchange worth billions of rupees. He said the UAF scientists had gathered 500 indigenous mango germplasm and data analysis and further characterization they introduced 10 verities of enormous yield potential and longer shelf life. He said that the UAF has developed a short duration cotton variety that will increase the productivity. He said there is a huge margin to grab the World in the export of dates for which we have to adopt the international standards. Commissioner Faisalabad Momin Agha said that the Government was taking revolutionary measures to uplift the agriculture sector in order to alleviate the poverty which is directly link to agriculture sector. Department of Rural Sociology Chairman Dr Ashfaq Mann women were standing shoulder to shoulder with men in socio-economic activities in the developed countries. He said the women need to explore their inbuilt leadership qualities. Prof. Dr. Aman Ullah Malik said that with the postharvest techniques, we can not only save the productivity but also it would help in the exports of the agricultural produces. He urged the growers to carefully make necessary arrangement of crop handling as a sizeable volume of fruit used to be destroyed during handling, transportation and storage. Dr. Izhar Ahmad said that the University was making all out steps for the development of the agriculture sector and to polish the skills of the students and farmers.