The shrinking profitability in agriculture sector, injudicious use of inputs, poor farming techniques, postharvest practices and effects of climate change on crops are not only making the sector incompatible with the rest of world but also aggravating the woes of the farming community.

The shrinking profitability in agriculture sector, injudicious use of inputs, poor farming techniques, postharvest practices and effects of climate change on crops are not only making the sector incompatible with the rest of world but also aggravating the woes of the farming community. This was stated by University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan at media briefing on the objectives and successes of US Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies (USPCAS) in Agriculture and Food Security. He said that sixty percent of water and inputs at the agricultural fields are being wasted due to imbalance usage and unavailability of modern technologies. He said that climate changes were playing havoc with the crop production and food security like issues. He said that support price of 40 kg wheat was fix at Rs 1300 whereas after including interest rate of banks and other charges, it costs Rs 1500 to the government against its international market price of Rs 1000. He said the fast-changing demography, climate and international trade policies are impacting the economies of the countries. In this scenario, agriculture seems to be more important than what might have appeared as a source of food security only. He revealed that during the recent seminar at GHQ with Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa as chief guest, Chairman Higher Education Commission Prof. Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad invited the participants to visit UAF if they want to see a visible change in academic ranking and research at any university of the country. He said such encouraging remarks and appreciations at highest level put a huge challenge for us to make more efforts thereby to sustain the change and good initiatives. He added under USAID funded USPCAS, five chairs including climate change, precision agriculture, biotechnology, outreach and policy had been established to address the problem of sector by making it compatible to international market. He said that the faculty-student exchange program, as many as 138 slots had been created to send to University of California USA for capacity building and learn from their experience. He said that 50 people out of 138 slots have got the training under the program. He said that the slots had been bifurcated in research, curriculum reforms and stakeholders. He said in order to achieve its objectives USPCAS-AFS is working in five dimensions including efficient governance and leadership; effective curricular reforms; high quality applied and policy research; internationally competitive multidisciplinary graduate training; and technical and financial sustainability. He said that USPCAS has initiated commissioned research keeping the need of the farmers and trends in agriculture in view. He said that the University had kicked off three new degree program including seed science and technology; climate changes; and human nutrition. He said that due to bad food habits and diminishing outdoor healthy activities, 40 percent of population suffers from malnutrition, obesity and other health issues that invite our attention to diversify our food by blending corn and wheat flour and putting other options on the table.