ISLAMABAD: As many as seven watershed management and irrigation facilities are being established with the financial assistance of $3 million provided by US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to facilitate farmers improve their productivity and livelihood across the country.
"Farmers across the country are improving their productivity and livelihood through US Government funded watershed management programme," an official in the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) said.
He said that US has been providing financial assistance for the project while farmers are also being trained at the sites on how to effectively manage scare water resources, leading to increased yields and ultimately, higher incomes.
The USA Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Hoagland visited one of the PARC station demonstration sites of Watershed Rehabilitation and Irrigation Improvement at Satrameel to directly interact with farmers to know how the project is improving their daily lives.
He congratulated the farmer and said that technologies used at the testing site would be utilized at other places also to facilitate farmers.
The Ambassador was accompanied by PARC officials, Dr. Muhammad Sharif, Dr. Nadeem Amjad, M. Ashraf, Muhammad Yasin, Syed Ghaznafar Abbas, Sardar Ghulam Mustafa and Muhammad Saleem.
On the occasion, Dr. Muhammad Sharif said that the visit of US Ambassador would open up new areas of collaboration and also briefed the participants about the history of Satrameel station of PARC.
He said that various applied watershed management technologies have been developed and tested at Satrameel to meet future challenges.
Other officials of the PARC also shared their views and experiences of the project.
"The project is playing and important role to uplift the livelihood of the local farming community of the area," said Direct Public Relations, PARC, Sardar Ghulam Mustafa adding the farmers use technologies for effective watershed management and growing off- season vegetables.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Watershed Rehabilitation and Irrigation Improvement project is a collaborative effort between USDA, ICARDA and PARC.
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