Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of water quality workshop, jointly organised by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), they said that such kind of events would play a vital role in creating awareness regarding efficient use of water by using modern technologies.
The workshop is also aimed to provide participants with an overview of water contamination issues, assessment and solution of low resources areas. Three experts from the United States Department of Agriculture and 85 senior officials and technical experts from the federal and provincial ministries, universities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are attending the events, which are organized by USDA and ICARDA.
David Williams, the US Embassy Agriculture Counsellor, while speaking on the occasion said that the Pakistan Water Dialogue Project helps farmers capture, store and use water more efficiently for agriculture. Under the project over 18,000 farmers have been trained regarding modern technologies and over 1,500 farmers have adopted these technologies, he said.
He said that water management, water conservation and the efficient use of water are very important. Chairman Pakistan Agricultural Research Centre, Dr Yousaf Zafar said the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R) will soon give a briefing to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on the whole gambit of agriculture sector.
He further said that the creation of the Ministry of Water Resources Development, which is separated from the Ministry of Water and Power, is a fundamental change brought by the government. The government considers agriculture as the backbone of the economy but funds allocated for this sector are very small which could not fulfil requirements, he said.
The USDA experts leading the workshops are Michael Kucera, an agronomist at USA Natural Resources Conservation Services, Jon Fripp, a stream mechanics civil engineer at USDA's Construction and Soil management Center, and Hilary Landfried, a programme manager with the US Foreign Agriculture Services Office of Capacity Building and Development.
For six years now, USDA with support from the United States Agency for International Development has worked to improve watershed rehabilitation and irrigation by promoting practices and technologies that assist in water and soil conservation.
USDA's work began in 2011 in partnership with ICARDA with a five-year programme to help rural farmers. The project established over 40 demonstration sites, published 150,000 brochures, held 240 farmers field days, and reached 14,000 farmers. Due to these efforts more than 1,500 farmers have already adopted one ore more the promoted technologies.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017