CDWP approves Rs three billion agriculture technology park

The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has approved the establishment of Rs 3 billion Pak-Korea Hi-Tech Agriculture Innovation Center / Technology Park at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. This was stated by University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan while addressing the inaugural session of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology in the Modern Era arranged by Department of Agronomy, UAF.
He said that the Technology Park was meant for adding value to agro products through product development and trainings and to bring innovation and skills in agriculture sector to improve and capture value chain in the existing supply chain system. He said that it would also play a vital role to overcome stagnation in agricultural productivity by developing a technology park for the commercialisation of university research as a market force.
The project will also focus on following three aspects of agri entrepreneurship including promotion and commercialisation of new technologies and innovations; capture value within the value chain and its commercialisation and enhance and manage efficiencies of Agri-farms and agri-businesses. The goal is to build an entrepreneurial ecology through product development, business start-ups, business incubation, technology transfer and commercialisation. Talking about the microbiology, he said that the UAF was having microbiology working group to conduct the tangible researches. He said that out of 50 foreign scholarships of Punjab government, the microbiology was having a big share with 7 scholarships.