Agriculture is no more a profitable business for farmers but it does has a huge profit for middleman and people running the show at flour mills, textile, poultry and sugar industry by squeezing the farmer’s share in the income.

Agriculture is no more a profitable business for farmers but it does has a huge profit for middleman and people running the show at flour mills, textile, poultry and sugar industry by squeezing the farmer’s share in the income. This was said by University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan. He was addressing the participants of 21st senior management course from National Institute of Management (NIM) Islamabad visiting the varsity here at new syndicate hall on Monday morning. Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that last year the varsity had added 48 new degree programs in order to give the youth new options and diversify the education adding that we made various arrangements of double degree programs with Canadian and Chinese universities including IBA Shukhar. He told the visiting management team that this year, owing to pro-farmers policies of the federal and provincial governments and 60 percent more uptake of phosphorus helped to surpass its early wheat record to 26 million ton. He was of the view that agriculture was continue to perform despite the management weakness and market disadvantages adding that in Pakistan, agriculture is no more profitable business for farmer but middleman and people involve in textile, poultry and sugar industry are making huge money by squeezing the farmers income. Responding to a question, Dr. Ahmad said that out of 25000 students, the expenditure of 25 percent students were fully covered through national and international donner agencies as last year the varsity had spent 750 million rupees in students financial assistance. He said that we were making skill development of the youth through training of technicians and equipping them with Chinese language to capitalize the opportunities of China Pakistan Economic Corridor and make it a real game changer in the region. He said the varsity is reducing the number of irrigations to wheat from five to three to make the water available for other crops adding that on five irrigations we are using 40 million acre feet water that is more than the total storage capacity of Tarbela and Mangla. Describing the trade mapping of China Pakistan Economic Corridor, he said China has a culture of present dried Jujube (Bair) before the guests adding that Pakistan has a huge potential to fill the demand-supply gap by exporting this exotic fruit to China. He deplore that in order to ensure plenty of wheat and sugar in the country, the political economy of five crops promotes over-exploitation of natural resources that does not allow farmers to think beyond and grow other profitable crops as various agro-ecological zones spread from mountains to sea level allow us to grow more than 80 crops. He emphasized the need to break the vicious circle of 5-crop political economy adding that Pakistan has new future unless we come out of it. He underscored the need to inculcate the university students to respect the others point of view and promote tolerance and harmony in the youth by bridging the gap between teachers and students that would allow ask critical questions. He said we can only win the war against terrorism and extremism only by changing the mindset at varsity level.