Scientists told to develop high yielding varieties

Punjab Provincial Minister for Agriculture Khurshid Zaman Qureshi has said that in order to achieve maximum yield potentials the all components of education, research and agriculture extension should join hands together involving all stakeholders particularly farming community.
Presiding over a meeting of deans, directors, researchers and scientists of University of Agriculture Faisalabad in Syndicate Hall of the University here on Wednesday, provincial minister asked the scientists to develop high yielding varieties to make the country food secure and prosperous.
He added that the mealy bug on cotton and mango crop is causing disaster for farming community and our scientists should have to design some protective technology to overcome this burning issue. Qureshi stressed the need for economical farming practices to attract the small farmers in order to obtain maximum yield from their agricultural crops.
Khurshid Zaman Qureshi lauded the academic and research standards of the university and said that during its hundred years existence UAF has been producing trained manpower in the field of livestock and agriculture not only at national level but globally its role has been acknowledged.
Professor Bashir Ahmad, Vice Chancellor while giving briefing to the provincial minister said that the current enrolment of the university has raised up to 9411. He maintained that in order to cope with residential problems of students, five new hostels are being constructed.
He added that 573 faculty members are involved in teaching and research 253 of them are Ph. D's from national and international universities. He told that university has been ranked number one university among all the public sector universities of the country which is symbol of excellence in teaching and research.
Professor Iftikhar Ahmad Khan Dean, Faculty of Agriculture highlighted the main features of faculty and said that UAF scientists are producing excellent results in spite of limited resources for research. He added that breeding section of the university has developed new variety of cotton, which is much tolerant against sucking pests and mealy bug.
Professor Muhammad Ashfaq, Chairman Dept of Agri Entomology briefed about research carried out by research group of entomology in the field of cotton and mango particularly disastrous pest of mealy bug. Professor Abdul Ghafoor Director Research, Professor Atta Muhammad Ranjha, Dr Rai Niaz Ahmad and other scientists also gave briefing to the minister.