RAWALPINDI- A seven-day training course in "Tunnel Farming" concluded at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University (PMAS-AAUR) Rawalpindi here on Monday. The Department of Horticulture, PMAS-AAUR organised the training course, in collaboration with Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF). In the training course 42 people, in which farmers, people from Chamber of Agriculture Economics, students, teachers, people from NGOs from province Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan participated. At the concluding session of the training course, Syed Ahmad Shah chief Grants Monitoring Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF), was chief guest. In his address, he said increasing population, expanding residential colonies and minimising agriculture land has forced every person to think about, how the demand of food can be satisfied. "Tunnel farming is introduced to get early and high production of summer crop of vegetables," he added. He said that by adopting and promoting tunnel farming in the country, a farmer can enhance his income by getting high production up to 60 per cent more than traditional farming. He said that use of tunnel farming could increase per acre yield for farmers and reduce cost of growing crops. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Munir, Dean Faculty of Crop and Food Sciences, PMAS-AAUR, in his address appreciated the efforts of Department of Horticulture for organising such a successful training course. He hoped that the participants from across the province would act as agents of change by establishing the model tunnel farms in their respective areas. Workshop organiser, Prof. Dr. Nadeem Akhtar Abbasi, Chairman Horticulture Department, PMAS-AAUR wrapped up the objectives of the workshop and hoped that by training vibrant elite of tunnel farming professionals, the rural population would witness a revolution in their economy. Dr. Abbasi offered full support from PMAS-AAUR and said that University would provide all possible facilities to the farmers for the establishment of tunnel. It may be recalled that training course was organized by the Department of Horticulture, PMAS-AAUR, in collaboration with Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF) with an aim to disseminate the technical know-how of growing off-season vegetables under protected environment such as poly tunnel farming. Seven days training course covered all aspects of tunnel farming. Practical and theoretical elements included site selection, infrastructure and equipment, crop choices and cycles, hygiene, water and nutrition, pests and diseases, temperature and humidity control, pollination, trellising and pruning. Through tunnel farming the farmers can get more plantations per kanal, maximum profit on early crop by using hybrid seeds that give maximum production and best use of urea and irrigation. Tunnel farming not only helps to get early crop, it also helps in getting more production per acre as compared to traditional farming. For this reason the duration of availability of the vegetables increased and the prices become stable. On the other hand the employment opportunities generate and income of the farmer increases.