Pakistan, China sign agri-cooperation DoU

In a move to promote strategic cooperation between China and Pakistan in industry-university research on modern agriculture, documents of understanding (DoU) were signed by the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Weifang Engineering Vocational College, Qingzhou Municipal Government and Weifang National Comprehensive Pilot Agriculture Zone at Weifang last week.

The four sides agreed to work together for promoting agricultural technology cooperation under the framework of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with focus on construction of the entire agricultural industry chain, deep processing of agricultural products and related industrialisation.

“Agriculture sector in the South Asian region is struggling with low productivity, supply shortfalls, low returns to farmers, lack of advanced technology and lack of trained professionals, and thus threatening our food security,” NUST Pro Rector Academics Dr Osman Hassan noted in his speech on the occasion.

“These problems are closely related to people’s livelihood and well-being, particularly in Pakistan, as it is an agro-economic country with immense potential for crop production and research in agricultural sciences.”

“Currently NUST was actively conducting research including precision agriculture, multispectral sensing of crop fields, agricultural 3D printing and scanning applications, early detection of pathogens and plant disease management,” he said.

“Nevertheless, research on sustainable agricultural resource management systems remains a major challenge for us, and I sincerely believe that the agreements will certainly play an indispensable role in filling these gaps,” he stated.

Dr Hussain Ahmad Janjua, Principal Atta-ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences, NUST, while highlighting the practical measures, said “food processing and preservation is a key area for both countries.”