The University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) has set up a farmer facilitation centre under which a helpline 080054726 and a website kissandost.pk have been launched in collaboration with National ICT R&D Fund.

The University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) has set up a farmer facilitation centre under which a helpline 080054726 and a website kissandost.pk have been launched in collaboration with National ICT R&D Fund. It was revealed at the stakeholders conference titled site specific and economical crop production technology and its dissemination through ICT at New Senate Hall. Chairing the session, the UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that the initiatives will provide the guidance the farming community for the best cropping system, technology suiting to their piece of land and resources at the farming door step. He said that mobile phones, TVs, internet and others information technologies had gained immense importance, influencing the opinions of the people. The effective use of these technologies for agriculture purpose can help the country uplift the agricultural sector. He also said the knowledge was generating with the large pace that must be communicated to the farmers. He said that imbalanced usage of input was costing the country million of the rupees. He called for taking the measures to guide the farming community about the balanced usage of input. He said that in Newzealand, there were two agricultural universities for the population of four million people. Former UAF Vice Chancellor and Centre for Advanced Studies in Food Security and Agriculture Director Prof Dr Bashir Ahmad said that the world has increased the agricultural productivity manifold. He was of the view that the promotion of ICT in the agriculture sector was the need of the hour to compete with the rest of the world. He said that we had losing the million of rupees because of imbalanced usage of fertilizer. He said that the food security is one of the major threats for the world amid climate changes and depleting water resources. We have to use the modern technologies useable for farmers, he added. Parliamentarian Mahdom Syed Alam said that the country was blessed with tremendous resources and talent. He said that the food security and depleting water resources are the real challenges. He said that we have to take extra measures and to promote the modern technology and make them accessible for the farming community. ICARDA Country Manager Dr Abdul Majeed said that we had the tremendous resources. There is a need to tap the potential and to make the efficient usage of the resources. He said that the ICT in agriculture will not only curtail the wastage of inputs etc but the fetch the money for the farming community. Chairman Agronomy Prof Dr Ehsan Ullah said that the country has the tremendous potential that need to be explored. He said we have to take the extra measures keeping the demand of modern era in view. Dr Muhammad Rahid said that the UAF in collaboration with the Punjab Agri Extension Department had developed fertilizer model , giving the guidelines to the farming community about proper fertilizer usage Dr Ahsan Raza Sattar said that 63 percent of the farming community were the small farmers. He said that we had surveyed the 36 districts of the province to know about the problems of the farming community and map out a comprehensive to address .