Australian delegation visits UAF

Australia and Pakistan have stressed the need to boost up institutional and people-to-people contacts to enhance ties especially in the field of agriculture particularly food security in a bid to facing the challenges confronting the countries.
Australian delegation headed by Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Nick Austin visited the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad and held the meeting with UAF Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan and other officials of the university. The other members of delegation included Australia-Pakistan Agriculture Sector Linkages Programme (ASLP) Coordinator and Research Programme Manager for Horticulture Les Baxter, Research Programme Manger Land and Water Andrew Nobel, Programme Officer ASLP Munawar R Kazmi and Melissa Kelly. PAC member Dr Tasneem was also present.
Dr Nick Austin said that their country was very much concern about the food security across the globe and we had to join hands in order to combat the challenge. He said that the assistance from the Australia to Pakistan had increased manifold in the field of education and agriculture in term of scholarships and research projects, as Australia had provided 100 scholarships per annum to Pakistan in a bid to get benefit from their experiences. He said that their country was committed to overcoming the issue of climate changes and in this regard tangible steps were being taken. He maintained in Pakistan the majority of farmers hold less than 5 hectares of land.
Australia-Pakistan Agriculture Programme is aimed at reaching more farmers who can benefit from innovation of management practices to alleviate poverty. He said the ASLP was one of Pakistan's most successful models for co-operation and partnership, focusing on the dairy, mango, and citrus industries, recently entered a second phase, with funding of A$12.95m over 4 years.
Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said the production of the major crops has been stagnating for the last few years because of climate changes and lack of resources. He said that Indian Punjab was one third of our Punjab but they are using tractors and machinery. He said that the country had 80 million acre of land resources. Out of which 22 million-acre is under cultivation, while the equal areas is uncultivated. If we improve our water efficiency, we can double the areas.
He said that the situation of food security was worsening and now we had to depend on growing genetically modified crops in the country to avert the impact of hunger. He said many countries including Australia were using the technology of GM crops. He lauded the steps being taken by Australia to flourish the agriculture by giving financial assistance to our country. He called for more strengthening the ties with the country having the climate like our country. He said that ten students from UAF are pursuing their studies at Australian Universities. He said that the university has so far produced 50,000 students in the field that were rendering their service for uplifting the sector.
He said since the inception of the country, the production of the major crops have increased many times owing to increase in per acre production and endeavour on the part of agriculture scientists. He said the wheat production has boosted up to 7 times, rice production goes up to 13 times, cotton 12 times, sugarcane eight times, potato 116 times, citrus 191 times and guava 220 times.