The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestck (Minfal) and Agriculture University Faisalabad (UAF) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on special programme for food security (SPFS). According to the agreement, the University will offer one year diploma of "Veterinary Assistant", which would be started during the current year.
The aim of the project is to educate young farmers about modern methology of cultivation and farming. The University would train about 45 young farmers every year.
The project will help increase the income of small farmers to the tune of Rs seven billion annually and generate about 10,000 new jobs at village level in project area. National Project (SPFS) Director Dr Masood A Rana and UAF Vice Chancellor Dr M. Ashraf inked the project.
Giving details of the course, Dr Masood A. Rana and Dr M. Ashraf said that 90 unskilled and unemployed young farmers would be selected from the project area of six districts of Punjab including Sargodha, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Sahiwal, Muzaffarabad and Rahim yar Khan to be trained in the first batch.
The training program would be executed by the UAF in its Faculty of Veterinary Sciences under the overall management and coordination of Department of Continuing Education with the total cost of eight million rupees, they explained.
Dr Rana further explained that there was a provision of 200 training of Veterinary Stock Assistants on country level for young farmers of the project area to enable them to run "Animal Health Units" to be established at village level by the project.
The training would be imparted by the Provincial training Institutes and Agriculture Universities, he explained, saying that the MoU was one of the steps towards ensuring food security, employment generation and poverty alleviation in rural areas of the country.