FAISALABAD: Former ambassador and President Institute of Regional Studies Nadeem Riyaz said that there is a need to strengthen academia industry linkages and increase research funding to build a knowledge-based economy that will help cope with different agriculture challenges facing the country.

He chaired the roundtable discussion on food and nutrition security at University of Agriculture Faisalabad. The event was arranged by Institute of Agriculture Resource Economics (IARE) in collaboration with advisory and outreach chair Pak-Korea Nutrition Centre.

He said that the agriculture sector was in the grip of serious challenges including low productivity, water scarcity, climate changes and policy issues etc. He said that the farmers are reluctant to adopt the latest agriculture trends due to fake news surfacing on social media. He said that we should paceup efforts for spreading authentic information so that the agriculture sector can progress. He said that excessive use of groundwater was putting the agriculture sector on stake.

There is a need to educate the people about the rational use of water. Dean Faculty of Food, Nutrition and Home Sciences Dr Masood Sadiq Butt said that Pak Korea Nutrition Centre has been set up at UAF that will help improve the nutritional status of the people.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022