MULTAN: The Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture is going to sign memorandum of understandings with Koreans for the value addition of the agricultural products of the country.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Asif Ali told Dawn on Monday the Koreans were interested in the imports of value-added vegetables, mangoes and carrots.

He said vegetables around Multan were being irrigated with contaminated water, so farmers should cultivate flowers instead of vegetables. He said the university would help the farmers export flowers to Dubai.

He said farmers were facing issues regarding the development of seeds, production loss and climate change. He said Lodhran district was ideal for the cultivation of grapes while banana was also being cultivated in the river belt of the region.He said the massive cutting of mango trees in Multan was also a matter of concern.

“There is a need to accelerate mango exports and find linkages of mango market in international market,” he said.

He said the establishment of institutions made the nations progressive as the institutions helped make the people skillful.

“Our focus is to produce such unique graduates who not only have professional training but are also able to work in the field for research,” he said.

“If a university has 200 PhDs, we have to see what is the benefit of these PhDs to the city?” he said.

He said Old Shujabad Road, where the university and other agriculture related department are situated, would be carpeted. He said that the university will also play its role to promote the business of tunnel and poultry farming.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2016