FAISALABAD: (APP) University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said here on Monday that climate changes had been affecting the agronomical patterns in the region and causing heavy losses to agricultural productivity and threatening the food security in the country.
He was chairing a meeting of scientists from the Faculty of Social Sciences, organised by the US-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security at Syndicate Room. US-Pak CAS-AFS Chief of Party Dr Bashir Ahmad and other notables also attended the meeting.
Dr Iqrar said that cotton leaf curl virus (CLCV) was nothing to do with the recent drop of cotton production. It was due to climate changes which reduced the cotton production by 35 per cent.
He said that the university was making a policy for the government to fight the future challenges of the cotton crop.
He sought the research proposals from scientists that would be carried out under the USPCAS-AFS. He said that high efficiency irrigation was in high demand, but unfortunately, our country was lagging far behind in the area.
He also directed the scientists to work on irrigation pricing, policy options for enhancing the marketing efficiency of potato and onion crops, investigating malnutrition and maternal issues in Thar districts, food and nutritional security analysis of pregnant women to ensure food security for the next generations and opportunities for improving small-scale milk marketing system through dairy cooperatives concept in Pakistan.