A state-of-the-art Information and Communication Centre and Digital Library with the cost of Rs 1350 million will be set up at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad

A state-of-the-art Information and Communication Centre and Digital Library with the cost of Rs 1350 million will be set up at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad to provide modern facilities and strengthening information dissemination system with the innovative tools, said University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan. He was speaking to participants of eight Indigenous On Campus Training arranged by Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization, UAF in collaboration with Higher Education Commission. Pakistan Institute of ICT for Development Chief Executive Ammar Jaffari and ORIC Director Prof Dr Asif Ali also spoke on the occasion. Addressing to the participants, the Vice Chancellor said it is the era of technology and the world has become the global village, thanks to IT. He stressed upon the need to be benefited from the modern technology. He said that professional education was the need of the hour to excel in the era in which development of any country is depending on technologies He said if we give the youth the right direction we can compete with the rest of the world. He said that the UAF in collaboration with Extension Department had developed a fertilizer model to provide information about balanced usage of fertilizer through the usage of internet . The farmer can get the information and experts recommendation from the site fertilizeruaf.pk. He said we have also actively working on cyber extension for which "Zarai Baithak" (Zaraibaithak.com) has been set up meant to provide solutions to agri problems of the farming community by using information technology. Ammar Jaffari said that more than 60 percent of the country population was comprising on youth. He said that if we give them the proper training, the country can make the progress rapidly as they are the future leader of the country. He said Pakistan Institute of ICT in Development (PIID) was making all-out efforts to take the power of ICTs to rural Part of Pakistan with the online and offline information system . He said that they had launched the E village and other project to enhance the capacity of the people especially in villages. He said that E village project was meant to empowerment local communities, establishment of a “E-community Center” in every village having pooled resources and provide joint platform to farmers to discuss problems He said E Pakistan project would be initiated on August 14. He said that in a couple of years, each part of the country will have become hotspot which will be in the range of satellite and internet. Prof Dr Asif Ali said that adoption of the ICT technology in agriculture sector was needed to face the challenge of food security. He said that UAF was creating the awareness among the people about the usage of latest usage.