Efforts stressed to cope with food insecurity

LAHORE:The 11th convocation of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) was held here on Thursday in which a total of 1,470 graduates were conferred degrees while 78 position-holders were awarded medals.

Governor/Chancellor Ch Muhammad Sarwar presided over the convocation while Minister for Livestock & Dairy Development Department Sardar Hasnain Bahadur Dareshak, Adviser to CM on Livestock Faisal Hayat, Secretary Livestock Punjab Barrister Nabeel Ahmad Awan, Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Masood Rabbani and a large number of students, faculty members, industrialists from dairy, poultry and pharma industries and others attended the ceremony. Of the graduating students, 222 were awarded DVMs degrees, 355 BS (Hons), 91 Pharm-D, 27 Doctors of Nutrition and Dietetics (DND), 42 MBAs, 24 MBAs (Executive), 11 MBF, 35 BBA (Hons), 233 MSc, 393 MPhil and 37 PhDs.

Addressing the convocation, Ch Muhammad Sarwar congratulated the graduating students and urged them to work hard, respect their parents and teachers for success in practical life, serve humanity and play their due role in nation building. He said education was the top priority of the government and Vice Chancellors of all universities were being appointed on merit. The governor also said food security, healthy environment and livestock production were the areas of priority for our country. He urged the UVAS scientists to expedite their efforts to cope with the challenges such as food insecurity and malnutrition. He said academic research could move the country towards prosperity. He said Pakistan has great potential in livestock sector and ‘we should try to increase the livestock production to feed our ever-increasing population’.

Earlier, the chancellor along with the Vice-Chancellor gave away degrees to PhD scholars and medals to the position-winning graduates. Prof Dr Masood Rabbani spoke about the academics, research, development, extension programmes, recent initiatives and community services of the university.

He also said UVAS was swiftly achieving the milestones of need-based multi-level education and establishing itself as talent development institution by using its knowledge, resources and skills for growth of human resources. The Vice-Chancellor informed the audience that UVAS scientists were executing 144 research projects worth of Rs 1.7 billion, including 15 funded by foreign agencies worth Rs 905 million.