FAISALABAD - Speakers at a seminar called for taking steps to counter dropout trend in educational institutes and to pay special focus on education in children and youth. There are 70 million people across the country who are either lying under the age of 17 or have dropped out in matriculation. They were addressing at a certificates distribution ceremony of the veterinary diploma holders at new senate hall, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. The ceremony was arranged by Department of Continuing Education, UAF. Chief Executive Officer Punjab Livestock and Dairy Development Board Major General (R) Muhammad Ali was chief guest and Deputy Secretary MINFA Inamul Haq was guest of the honour. Faculty of Agriculture Dean Prof Dr Muhammad Ashfaq, Division of Education and Extension Director Prof Dr Tanvir Ali and Department of Continuing Education Chairman Prof Dr Mehmood Ahmed Randhawa also addressed on the occasion. As many as 30 students hailing from various districts including Rahim Yar Khan, Sargodhar and Azad Jammu Kashmir are trained under the one-year diploma in veterinary sciences and they were given Rs2,500 stipend per month during their course of studies under the Crop Maximization Project II. CEO Muhammad Ali revealed the Punjab government is launching a project to recruit 2000 each women livestock extension workers and inseminators on contract basis in a couple of days. He said the Punjab needs 16,000 livestock inseminators but the there is a deficiency of 12,000 inseminators in the province as 3000 among these are self employee and 992 are working as government employees. He said that his board would send 500 persons to the university for training. Inamul Haq said that such courses help the capacity building so keeping in view, there is a need to expedite the efforts to promote education in the society and the continuing education plays a vital role in this regard. He said that a massive project should be initiated to train at least 4,000 persons in this regard. Prof Dr Muhammad Ashfaq hailed the steps being taken on the part of continuing education dept and termed it a step toward progress. He said that it is a need of the hour to train the labour force and transfer the knowledge to the community. Floating the idea of promoting the cultivation Moringa, a plant, he said according to NASA, the plant is a plant of 21st century. He said that Moringa has 7 times more than vitamin C than orange. It has 4 times more than vitamin calcium than milk. He also highlighted other feature of the plant including use as food, bio-fuel and other. He also stressed the need to adopt measure as the forest in Pakistan has reduced to five percent. Prof Dr Tanvir Ali stressed the need to increase the literacy rate to meet the challenges confronting the country. He urged the agricultural scientists to do more to meet the requirement of the agriculture of the country. He hailed the dept to train the people and the diploma will help promote the veterinary education among the people and to increase the production of the country. He thanked the people for attending the event. Prof Dr Mehmood Ahmed Randhawa informed the audience about the diploma and said that the people with matic (science group) were selected for the diploma aimed at increasing livestock production in the country. He said the batch completed the diploma a couple of days ago and all the students has started earning handsome amount that is an achievement. At the end, the all diploma holders were given tool kit related to their profession.