FAISALABAD, May 5: The government has been urged to formulate a comprehensive policy to save the agrarian economy from collapse in the wake of climatic change and conditionalities of World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements.

University of Agriculture vice-chancellor Dr Riaz Hussain Qureshi said this while speaking to participants of a four-day “Workshop for Information Landing Techniques” at the University here on Monday.

He further said the entire national economy was at stake on account of delay in adopting new developments and information technology. It was high time that policy makers should realize the gravity of the situation and adopt corrective measures so as to put the agrarian economy on the right track, he said.

The time, he said, had come to make revolutionary changes in the marketing system and to convert the agriculture into agro-based industry and provide incentives for its boosting.

Realizing the importance of information technology, the university administration had already launched an information technology system equipped with capital fibre techniques for imparting education to students for accelerating the pace of research as well as dissemination of knowledge to growers, he claimed.

He said a gigantic plan was being launched in the Agrivarsity with a sum of Rs35 million for providing latest know-how and research to students and teachers through capital optical fibre system.

Special attention was also being given to modernize the university library so that students and teachers could get research journals of all universities and themes of modern research education.

Mr Qureshi claimed that a helpline had also been set up on the campus by connecting it with the help desk of the Punjab Agriculture secretary for coordinating research, extension and agricultural education activities.

Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan Science Foundation chairman Dr Fareed A Malik said the PSF had set up science centres in country’s major cities.

He further said that the PSF had set up a national science library with on-line facilities in 350 universities of the world for the benefit of research scholars and students.