UET & PTB join hands for better tobacco crop

PESHAWAR: University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Peshawar and the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) have entered into a collaboration to work together on the detection and estimation of tobacco crops through Geographic Image Analysis.

The collaboration will be between National Centre for Big Data and Cloud Computing (NCBC) UET Peshawar, and PTB, Peshawar. The documents were endorsed by Dr Waqas Gilani Chief Statistical Officer PTB and Director, ORIC, Dr Nasru Minallah in the presence of UET Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Iftikhar Hussain.

PTB Secretary Dr Qaisar Ahmed said the board would support the NCBC to identify fields of tobacco in respective regions through GPS and assist NCBC in sharing the statistical tobacco crop and yield-related information to enhance the NCBC system for improved tobacco analysis.

NCBC, as per the UET consultancy policy, will provide services in the detection of tobacco fields, through advanced geographic image analysis with NCBC’s state of the art remote sensing technologies.

Prof Dr Iftikhar Hussain said KP was the largest tobacco producer in the country as over 50pc of tobacco was produced here compared to other regions, adding it was important that experts from both institutions gained maximum benefits of this resource for the improving national economy.

Prof Dr Hamidullah, Director, Board of Advanced Studies and Research (BOASAR) thanked the PTB team. He stressed the need for engaging postgraduate students in the fieldwork and internship opportunities for the undergraduate students.

Dr Hamidullah assured continuous support on behalf of BAOSAR to enhance the research activities through industry-academia linkage.