'Budget cuts to affect quality of education badly'

Dissolving of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) will affect the quality of education badly because of lack of monitoring on educational institutes and the students will prefer private universities to government universities.
This was stated by University of Agriculture vice-chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan while briefing a delegation of the Foreign Service Academy Islamabad. He said that the government budget for the purpose of education is diminishing and the trend must be curtailed.
Talking about agriculture, he said that the agriculture provides one quarter of the total GDP. He said that 72 percent of the crops is being irrigated in Punjab, 15 percent in Sindh and remaining in the rest of the country. He said it is depressing only five crops including wheat, sugarcane, cotton, rice are being focused in the country but the country faces the shortage of one or more said crops because of lack of planning. He urged the government to design a long-term strategy.
He said Pakistan is blessed with fertile land and ecological system so as many as more than 300 crops can be cultivated in the land. He said that the country has 30 types of ecological zones that are best for many crops. He said that the number of grains markets is the same as it was in 1947 but now it is a prerequisite to set up more the markets as many crops destroyed owing to open storage. He said that the country is producing 24 million mands of wheat but we have the storage capacity for the said crop stands at four million mands only.
He further said that the Pakistan produces rice 4 to five times of its use that is an achievement. He said that in 1970, Pakistan had not a single poultry form but now the poultry industry has become 2nd biggest industry of the country. He said that Pakistan is 6th biggest producer of milk across the globe.
He said that total 130 universities are functioning in the country out of which six universities are agricultural and University of Agriculture is ranked number one on the field of agriculture. He said that these agricultural universities are producing 32,000 students a year and the UAF is only producing 12,000 students.