Experts at an ongoing eight-day International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD) PhD Workshop 2015 on Saturday called for improving economic activities coupled with basic needs of life in rural areas as 78 percent of the poor people worldwide are living in countryside.

Experts at an ongoing eight-day International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD) PhD Workshop 2015 on Saturday called for improving economic activities coupled with basic needs of life in rural areas as 78 percent of the poor people worldwide are living in countryside. They were addressing Workshop 2015 with the core concept of ICDD arranged at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad. The workshop was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Programme. Addressing on the occasion, UAF former vice chancellor/ Director Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) in Food Security and Agriculture Prof Dr Bashir Ahmad said that out of total poor worldwide, 60 percent are the farmers. He was of the view that promotion of modern trends in agriculture with subsidized inputs will increase the income of farming community . He added that poverty was compelling the rural population to move towards the cities which is aggravating the problems in urban areas. Dr Jamil Khan, Chair, Agricultural Policy Programme of the CAS said that Pakistan had become one of the most populous countries of world. He said that the country population had touched to 188 million with the growth rate of 1.95 percent. He said that 62 percent of the people were residing in the rural areas. As many as 52.2 percent of the people in Pakistan are below 20 years. He said that the policy measures are needed to improve the income of the rural populations to avert poverty. Dr Muhammad Ashafaq, Director Institute of Agri and Resource Economics, UAF said that farms size was decreasing with the increasing population. The ninety percent of farmers were having the farm size less than 12.5 acre. The ratio was 68 percent in 1972. German Scientist Andreas Burkert urged the scientists to come up with out-of-the-box viable solutions to address the issue of the rural populations. He said that ICDD was actively working on increasing the livelihood for the rural population. Dr Christoph Scherrer from University of Kassel, Germany called for taking extra measures on the part of experts and all stakeholders for poverty alleviation and achieve full and productive employment. He said interdisciplinary approaches will help serve humanity.