FAISALABAD City News

Speakers for improving economic activities
From Our Correspondent
FAISALABAD: Experts at an ongoing eight-day International Centre for Development and Decent Work (ICDD) PhD workshop on Saturday called for improving economic activities coupled with the basic needs of life in the rural areas.
The workshop funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) programme was arranged at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad.
Speaking on the occasion, UAF former vice-chancellor Dr Bashir Ahmad was of the view that promotion of modern trends in agriculture with subsidised inputs would increase income of the farmers. He said that poverty was compelling the rural population to move towards the cities, which was aggravating problems in the urban areas.
Dr Jamil Khan said that Pakistan had become one of the most populous countries of the world. He said that 62 per cent people were residing in the rural areas while 52.2 per cent people in Pakistan were below 20 years of age. He said that policy measures were needed to improve income of the rural population to avert poverty.
UAF Institute of Agri and Resource Economics Director Dr Muhammad Ashfaq said that farms size was decreasing with the increasing population. He said that 90 per cent of the farmers were having the farm size less than 12.5 acre.
German scientist Andreas Burkert urged the scientists to come up with out-of-the-box viable solutions to address the issues of the rural population. He said that the ICDD was actively working on increasing livelihood for the rural population.
Dr Christoph Scherrer from the University of Kassel, Germany, called for taking extra measures on the part of experts and all stakeholders for poverty alleviation. He said that interdisciplinary approaches would help serve the humanity.