FAISALABAD:Former ambassador and President Institute of Regional Studies Nadeem Riyaz said on Thursday that there was great need to strengthen academia-industry linkages and increase research funding to build a knowledge-based economy to cope with different agricultural challenges facing the country.
He chaired the roundtable discussion on food and nutrition security at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF). The event was arranged by the Institute of Agriculture Resource Economics (IARE), in collaboration with advisory and outreach chair Pak-Korea Nutrition Centre.
He said that the agriculture sector was in the grip of serious challenges including low productivity, water scarcity, climate changes and policy issues, etc. He said farmers were reluctant to adopt the latest agriculture trends due to fake news surfacing on the social media. He said that efforts should be intensified for spreading authentic information so that the agriculture sector could progress. He said that excessive extraction of groundwater was putting the agriculture sector at stake. There is a need to educate people about the rational use of water.
Dean Faculty of Food, Nutrition and Home Sciences Dr Masood Sadiq Butt said that Pak Korea Nutrition Center has been set up at UAF that will help improve the nutritional status of the people. He said that six chairs are established under the centre that was making all-out efforts to fight malnutrition issue, which was hitting 40pc of the Pakistani population.
He said schoolteachers, lady health workers and other stakeholders would be imparted training. Director IARE Dr Khalid Mushtaq said that the agriculture sector was the backbone of the economy contributing 19 per cent of gross domestic product which was directly linked to poverty alleviation.
Centre for Advanced Studies Director Dr Sultan Habib-Ullah said that the UAF was running research projects worth billions of rupees which will bring fruitful results.
Dr Asif Kamran said the UAF was producing tangible research proposals for the government. He said that the agriculture policies must be implemented in letter and spirit. Dr Allah Rakha, Dr Binish Sarwer and other notables also spoke.