The Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR) celebrated World Food Day on Thursday by raising awareness about food security and hunger.

The theme for World Food Day 2015 is ‘Social Protection and Agriculture: Breaking the Cycle of Rural Poverty’. The theme aims to sensitize people to rural poverty and promotes its eradication and the importance of food protection for all. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) celebrates World Food Day on October 16.

The day was marked by poster, essay writing, debate and cooking competitions organised by Arid University and GROW and the Indus Consortium.

Arid University vice chancellor Prof Dr Rai Niaz Ahmed was the chief guest on the occasion. Former MNA Hanif Abbasi was also invited but he could not turn up.University students also participated in a play to highlight the problems of farmers in arid agricultural areas. They arranged stalls of fruits and vegetables, as well as byproducts, to highlight the benefits of fruits and vegetables.

Ambareen, Mehwish Jaben and Saiqa Umer won first, second and third positions respectively. A group of M.Sc Food Technology students won the cooking competition, a B.Sc (Hons 7th semester) group stood 2nd and a B.Sc (Hons 5th semester) group bagged 3rd position.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2015

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