Inter province harmony : Pre requisite for national security
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FAISALABAD (APP): University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan has said that inter-province harmony was prerequisite to safeguard national interests and fight different challenges including poverty, food insecurity, climate changes, water scarcity and low agricultural productivity.
He was addressing inaugural session of two different workshops titled "Improving Ground Water Management" arranged by Institute of Agri Economics and three-day hands-on training titled "Agricultural Production Systems SI Mulator Modeling" arranged by USAID Funded Center for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, here on Tuesday.
Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that agriculture was facing major risks due to higher average temperature, sea level, glacial retreats, floods, and frequency of droughts.
The yields of crops were expected to decrease in the years to come not only because of flooding, but also due to rise in temperatures, he added.
He said that cotton production had faced 35 percent decline last year, causing a loss of billions of rupees to the national economy.
He said that 30 percent water reserves could deplete in two decades.
He called for taking timely steps to formulate policies and guidelines.
He said that UAF was making all out efforts to promote the inter-province harmony to make the development.
He said that population in other cities was increasing rapidly as many people were migrating to other cities to flee from disasters caused by climate change.
He said that climate change was decreasing life of agriculture crops in Pakistan rapidly.
He said that the UAF was committed to promote inter-province harmony and organized 500 events a year.
Director CAS-AFS Prof Dr Bashir Ahmad said that lives and livelihood of agriculture areas were being severely affected by climate change.
Flash floods and landslides had become common natural disasters of Pakistan agriculture land, he said and added these natural events had destroyed agriculture lands, standing crops, irrigation channels and orchards.
He said that there was a need for strengthening early warning systems and enhancing community preparedness.
Prof Dr Muhammad Ashfaq from Institute of Agri Economics said that heavy pumping of ground water was deteriorating level of underground water. There were 1.2 million tube wells which were accessed for water pumping that decreased water level massively, he said and added that with increase in population and urbanization, now more than 60 percent water was pumped from underground reservoirs.
He said that water experts must work on new methods of water storage so that excess water should be utilized with purification rather it became a disease for people.
USPCAS Climate Change Chair Dr Ashfaq Ahmad Chattha also spoke on the occasion.
