Punjab Agriculture Minister Malik Nauman Ahmad Langrial said that the government was committed to uplift agriculture sector and address the problems of farming community.
He was addressing the faculty of the university of Agriculture Faisalabad at new senate hall, UAF. He said that despite the fact of being an agrarian country, we are far lagging behind from the developed nations in the field. Langrial urged the scientists to conduct tangible research to combat the problems faced the country. He conveyed that the present government was taking steps for development and fight the challenges with revolutionary policies and that the rural development was a must to end the poverty. Punjab Agriculture said that the program of 10 billion trees would change the climate and help address the clean environment issue.
The Minister was of the view that UAF, being the oldest agricultural institution in the sub-continent, had made contributed a lot for the development of the agricultural sector and produce trained manpower. He added that as many as 30,000 students were being imparted education of international standards at UAF. praised the students and their parents for the choosing the agriculture field which is prerequisite to ensure the food security.
UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Ashraf said that university has produced around 2,000 PhDs and 1,00,000 graduates so far. The VC that it was the mother of all agricultural educational institutions in subcontinent. Dr Muhammad Ashraf the university was heading its ways to find the space in the top 500 universities of the globe. He said that only knowledge-based economies were progressing rapidly across the world. Our country was lagging behind in the avenue, he said, adding that we have to produce tangible research and commercialize it.
He said that daunting agriculture issuers were dwindling income of farming community. He mentioned that general public, farming and industry is looking at researches for scientific solutions of their problems. He said UN, while devising Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), devised a strategy to attain a better and more sustainable future by 2030. SDG 17 goals agenda is meant to address the global challenges, and hand-holding of downtrodden and oppressed segment of the society. The first and second goals among those are directly dealing with poverty alleviation and zero hunger.
He also inaugurated the E library and visited the different hostels and exhibition center. Punjab Minister Ajmal Chema, MPA Shakeel Shahid, Director Agri Information Rafique Akhtar and other notables also attended.
