ISLAMABAD : While presiding over an International Training Course on Geographic Information System (GIS) at PARC (HQs), Dr Muhammad Munir Goraya, National Project Director (Olive Production) & Senior Director (Crops) PARC, said that this training will be beneficial not only for trainees but also to whole olive sector. This technology will help in identifying the suitable areas for olive cultivation in Pakistan and review current status of olive orchards in the country.
He said the GIS is a system which is designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage and present all types of geographical data and information that refers to earth. Ultimately goal of this training is to integrate olive cultivation in Pakistani farming system with the help of GIS tools and variety of systems of cultivation which would coexist in the nature.
The training course was organized under the project titled “Technical Assistance and Support to the Ministries in the Agriculture Sector with Emphasis on Olive Production, Afghanistan, Nepal and Pakistan” with the financial support of Italian Government and technical support of PARC.
Dr. Nasir Mahmood Cheema, Deputy PD, is conducting this training and Dr. Guiliono Ramat, an Italian GIS expert, is imparting training while Dr Iven Virtuosi, Italian Director of Project, is supporting Dr Ramat during the training to equip the participants with good use of GPS and take positioning data from the fields for developing maps of suitable areas for olive cultivation in all the five provinces and AJK. This training is continuation and advance stage of previous two trainings conduced by the project with an Italian Expert Dr. Marasco.
On this occasion, Dr. Muhammad Munir said that PARC is ready to transfer this technology through training of local Pakistani and regional Afghanistan and Nepal scientists as master trainers to impart the training to their staff in their regions.