BAHAWALPUR - A seminar was organized by the Department of Soil Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB) to discuss ways to increase soil fertility along with good crop yields in climate change.
In the seminar, IUB Vice-Chancellor Engr. Prof. Dr Athar Mahboob said that climate change is affecting various sectors and agriculture is the most important one. Pakistan is an agricultural country and we have to improve our agriculture in terms of climate change. He said that our region has good production from cotton, wheat and other crops. But climate change is a big challenge that we all need to work on together.
Secretary Agriculture South Punjab Saqib Ali Ateel said that climate change is affecting crops all over the world and the extent to which developed countries are working on their crops, we also need to take into account our views on climate change to improve crops and get better yields from them. The most important thing for this is to increase the fertility of our land.
The micronutrients in it need to be improved and especially the farmer needs to be made aware of this so that he can cultivate his crops in a better way. Addressing the seminar, Registrar and Chairman, Department of soil sciences, Prof. Dr Moazzam Jameel said that soil is our mother and we get our livelihood from it and the land is being affected by climate change and we have to cultivate such crops.
At the same time, we need to focus on how to increase the use of biofertilizers. Our natural fertilizers are very important in increasing the fertility of our land. For this, our experts have a responsibility to guide the farmer. In the Seminar Dr Farrukh Hussain, a micro biotechnologist said that we become self-sufficient by increasing soil fertility.
As Pakistan has good agricultural land if we become strong in the agricultural country and if Pakistan develops in its agriculture then Pakistan’s economic condition will also improve. At the same time, we will be able to adapt to climate change. Sindh Agriculture University Dr Ghulam Mustafa Jamro and Dr Ghulam Hassan Abbasi, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur in their speeches focused that our farmers need to reduce the use of chemicals and increase the use of natural fertilizers to increase the fertility of the land. Experts should be kept in touch to be aware of climate change.
The seminar was attended by officers of the Department of Agriculture, Director Agricultural Research Institute, Dr Lal Hussain Akhtar, agricultural experts and faculty members from Agriculture University Multan and Bahauddin Zakaria University Multan.
Prof. Dr Zaheer Ahmad Zaheer, President of Soil Sciences Society of Pakistan also graced the occasion. He said that there is a lot of power in the land of Pakistan in terms of agricultural commodities and we have to make better use of it. We have to guide our farmers and cultivate crops that will make Pakistan self-sufficient in agriculture.