Workshop on Water Resource Management

Rawalpindi: A ten-day training workshop on Water Resource Management for Baluchistan Farmers/govt officials concluded at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR) here on Monday.
The workshop was organised by PMAS-AAUR in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of United Nations and AUS-AID Agricultural Project, with an aim to enhance capacity of the participants in water resource management and efficient use.
Thirty three participants including seven females of agricultural departments/colleges researchers, farmers, people from NGO and FAO field staff participated in the workshop.
PMAS-AAUR Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Rai Niaz Ahmed, in his address stressed that there is dire need to adopt latest techniques on farm water management to make barren lands productive.
He recommended that it is time to improve water management, irrigation and crop cultivation and launch of mass awareness campaigns.
He hoped that training workshop will help to strengthen the Baluchistan’s farmers’ technical capacity in on-farm water management and emphasized the need of rainwater harvesting to solve the problems regarding water scarcity.
The VC highlighted the need of water resource management for Baluchistan peoples and assured full cooperation of PMAS-AAUR. He wished to strengthen this training program in future.
Earlier, team leader and National Expert, Water Resource Management, FAO Malik Aijaz Hussain Awan, in his welcome address gave a brief introduction about the Baluchistan Agriculture Project of AUS-AID & FAO and hoped that this training will be helpful for the participants and undoubtedly assist in moving “the agricultural sector of Baluchistan to a higher level”.
He thanked the University administration and Prof. Dr. Rai Niaz Ahmad for arranging this workshop on the campus and assured full support from his organization to the University.
In the workshop the participants got training on High efficiency irrigation system, crop water requirements, introduction to landscaping, sources of irrigation water in Pakistan, surface irrigation methods, demonstration to solar system, conveyance and application efficiencies, irrigation scheduling, GIS remote sensing techniques etc and also visited University Research Farm Koont.