Agriculture in Pakistan accounts for 25 per cent of the economy and employs more than 40 per cent of the workforce.
The University of Sargodha (SU) and University of Canberra have signed a letter of agreement (LoA) to assist farmers in water management skills in Pakistan.
According to the SU’s , the project is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and is for a four year period.
in association with will be working with the Pakistan Council of Research in water resources (PCRWR), the Society of Facilitators and Trainers (SOFT), Islamabad and Social Sciences Research Institute (SSRI), and National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) in Pakistan.
Dr Muhammad Afzal, Dean Faculty of Agriculture, SU who signed the LOA said, “SU and the project staff will build a team of master trainers to provide further training to farmers at grass root level to develop approaches for managing water management skill through extension learning models. This project will help to create awareness among the farmers to develop their own skills for water saving in the area.”
Source: University of Sargodha website
The project is being led by Dr Heaney-Mustafa Sandra from the University of Canberra, who is the principal investigator of the ACIAR project. She said the project will help farmers deal with water issues.
“Through filed facilitators, we train local farmers so that they could teach other members of their fraternity because farmers trust each other more than they trust an agricultural scientist or anybody else.” Dr Sandra said.
The project will aim to determine the successful elements of existing on-farm irrigation water management initiatives and farmer training models in Pakistan.
It will also focus on improving farmers’ irrigation skills on irrigation profitability, labour, water and energy efficiency and social capital of farming households.
Both the universities will be working together to develop and test farmer tools for on-farm soil water, nutrient-monitoring and supply chains, together with a system for collecting and collating the data for collaborative, problem-based learning.
ACIAR has collaborated with Pakistan since 1984, according to ACIAR’s . Recent projects focused on Pakistan’s fruits such as mangoes and citrus, livestock (smallholder dairy), agricultural policy and agricultural water management.
EPA/RAHAT DAR Source: EPA
The organisation works with the Pakistani Government, DFAT, other donor partners, non-government organisations (NGOs) and the Pakistani private sector to provide research and development and build technical capacity.
