HYDERABAD, July 12: Seven students were awarded gold medals and an equal number silver while 661 received degrees at the Annual Convocation 2007 of the Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, on Thursday.

The first vice chancellor of the university and Rector of Al-Khair University, Dr A.Q. Ansari was the chief guest.

Dr A.Q. Ansari said that the Sindh Agriculture University, the only agriculture university of the province had been catering to human resource development needs of Sindh and Balochistan in particular and the country at large since 1977.

“Our economy is agro based yet 82 per cent of population is living below the poverty line”, he said and added: Although contribution of the livestock to value-added agriculture sector had increased from 30 per cent in 1988 to over 50 per cent in 2007, yet the development of livestock was far below its potential.

He stressed the need for redirecting agricultural education curricula. He said curricular reorientation will need to incorporate new role of market-oriented agriculture as well as issues of direct relevance to food security and rural poverty, including the post-WTO scenario.