NAROWAL  -    Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan
Iqbal has said that a sub-campus of the
University of Agriculture Faisalabad
(UAF) would be established in Narowal in order to produce skilled manpower and tangible research work for
uplift of agricultural in this area.
He was addressing a farmers’ gathering arranged by the UAF in collaboration with Agriculture (Extension) Department Punjab and Ali Akbar Group
in Narowal on 8th day of its nine-day
wheat enhancement campaign.
The minister said that although
Pakistan was an agrarian country, yet
we were importing edible items by
spending billions of rupees. He said
that Pakistan imported 3 million tons
of wheat and edible oil worth four billion in addition to other commodities
which was a matter of grave concern.
However, Prime Minister Shehbaz
Sharif had announced Agriculture
Package worth Rs 1800 billion which
was a hallmark step for the rehabilitation and progress of this sector; he said
and urged the agriculture scientists to
accelerate their efforts for enhancing
farm productivity which was very imperative for food security and poverty
alleviation in addition to cater to food
requirements of the country.
Speaking on the occasion, UAF
Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad
Khan stressed the need to promote
mechanised farming and said that
latest practices should be adopted
in agriculture sector to increase production of the crops. He said that
flood devastation badly affected the
agriculture sector in Pakistan. Hence
the agri scientists should take solid
steps to increase agri productivity on
war-footing, he added. He said that
Pakistan was blessed with tremendous resources. However, elaborate
measures were need of the hours to
per acre yield and make the country
self-reliant in food sector, he added.
Agriculture Extension Punjab Director General Dr Anjum Ali Buttar said
that the agriculture department was
also utilizing all available resources to
introduce latest technologies among
the farming community. In this connection, the field staff was also assigned target to educate and guide
maximum peasants so that they could
adopt latest techniques during cultivating and harvesting their crops.
The recent campaign would also
help contact maximum number of
farmers and persuade them to complete cultivation of their wheat crops
during November so that they could
get maximum production of their
crops, he added. Dean Faculty of Agriculture UAF Dr Sarwar Khan, Dean
Faculty of Sciences Asghar Bajwa,
UAF Entomologist Prof Dr Jalal Arif,
Deputy Director Agri Extension Tanvir Ahmad and Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) Ali Akbar Group Saad Akbar
also addressed the function.