Agriculture sector: promotion of solar-based energy, technologies to cut post harvest losses

The promotion of solar-based energy and technologies would not only help the country to overcome energy crisis but also boost the agriculture sector by narrowing down post harvest losses with technologies including solar dryers and solar milk pasteurizer.
This was stated by University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan while chairing the inaugural session on Attentive Energy for Community Development arranged by Department of Energy Engineering, University of Agriculture Faisalabad.
Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that as many as 95 percent of milk remained unprocessed. If we promote pasteurised milk technology at village level, it will help provide address the issue. He said that the University had developed milk chiller that will save the nutritive values of the milk. He also said that the country was producing a huge quantity of biomass and crop residue every year that must be converted into electricity as an alternative way.
Pakistan Agriculture Research Council's Engineering Division Director General Dr Munir Ahmad said that the country was producing dates million tones but only 20 percent are dried with the sun lights. He stressed upon the need to promote solar dryer. Dean Faculty of Agri Engineering Dr Allah Buksh said that pasteurized milk could be preserved for the longer shelf life hence it is marketable. He said that farming community don't get the proper price for milk due to non-availability of processing facilities at the farm level.
He said that the country spend the 14 million US dollar yearly on the import of oil.
Dr Munir Ahmad said that the country was importing the oil worth Rs 14 billion dollar to cater its need. He said that country can generate 3million MW solar energy. Whereas, 5000 MW can be generated from biomass, MPA Najma Afzal also spoke.