Pakistan Engineering Council Chairman Jawed Salim Qureshi alongwith UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, visits Agri expo staged at UAF as part of Spring Festival

The low-cost agricultural machinery for small land-holders must be designed by reverse engineering in the country to reduce cost of production. It will not only help address the woes of depressed farmers but also feed the increasing population that will double by 2050. This was stated by Pakistan Engineering Council Chairman Jawed Salim Qureshi at the International Seminar titled “role of agricultural engineering in SMART agriculture” arranged at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad as part of Spring Festival. UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, PARC Agricultural Engineering Division DG Munir Ahmad, Arid Agriculture Rawalpindi Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Rai Niaz Ahmad, German Agri Expert Fritz Boemler, DG Extension Dr Anjum Ali Bhuttar, UAF Faculty of Agricultural Engineering Dean Prof Dr Allah Buksh, MNA Riaz-ul-Haq, Dr Jahenzeb Cheema and other notables also spoke on the occasion. Eng Jawed Salim said that agriculture sector was the backbone of our economy. It is not only providing the food but also help in the poverty alleviation as majority of our population was associated with the sector. He said that progressive farmers were using the mechanization but a common farmer was unable to adopt the machinery in their fields. He urged the engineers to develop the low cost machineries for the small farmers. He added that China was using the reverse engineering in the agriculture which can be implemented in our country. He said that increased subsidy on agriculture could be adopted to provide the relief to small farmers. He urged the researchers to understand the soil of Pakistan amid climate changes and come up with new resilient varieties. He was of the view that Gilgit-Balistan was producing high quality dry fruit. We are unable to tap the potential of dry fruit due to transportation issue as land sliding bar the transporters to move the dry fruit to the rest of provinces. He also showed that Gilgit-Balistan has the few storage capacity. The PEC chief stressed upon creating more opportunities for students to demonstrate their talent. Qureshi said they had been working in collaboration with several institutions to lift the standard of engineering education. He said that they were collaborating with the industry to create 5000 new engineering jobs. He urged the students to develop entrepreneurial skills. Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that farmers don’t have sophisticated machinery for five major crops. He urged the developers to introduce efficient and low cost farm machinery not only to increase the productivity but to facilitate the farming community. He said farmers need be trained how to use the machinery in order to it effective. He said that UAF has been offering the five engineering demand driven degrees program including agri engineering, energy system engineering, food engineering, environmental engineering and water economic. He said that as many as 15 UAF scholars are sent abroad for perusing their degree. Dr Rai Niaz said that the country was losing millions of rupees due to imbalanced usage of inputs. He said that water crisis was worsening for which we have to take the measures about the effective measures of water. He said agriculture contributes 21 percent to the Gross Domestic Products. The food security and water scarcity were among challenges confronting the country Dr Munir Ahmad called for adopting the precision agriculture in the country. He said that the country was facing the different challenges including low productivity, food security and water scarcity. He said that the initiatives are taken to address the issue at national level. Dr Allah Buksh called for facing up to the challenges by developing cohesive and sustainable strategies to promote the mechanism in the farmer field. He said that ground and underground water quality was deteriorating and the measure must be taken in this regard Fritz Boemler said that country was most valuable to the climate changes. He said that education, access to markets, and value addition was the real issue of the farming community. Director General Extension Punjab Dr Anjum Ali Bhuttar said that the Provincial government was making efforts to facilitate the farming community with latest methods. He said that extensions department was taking all measures to disseminate the information in the farmers MNA Riaz-ul-Haq said that we are becoming the water scarcity. He said that on the other hand, we are dumping water back to sea instead of storing. He also showed his concern that we are imploring the dry milk worth millions of rupees.