FAISALABAD: The University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) and the Australian Center for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR) on Wednesday signed a project titled ‘Modern Pulses Value Chain’ worth $1.3 million to launch efforts to improve pulses value addition conditions.

A delegation led by Dr Raj Andikari, leader of the ACIAR project being carried out under the Agri Value Chain Collaborative Research, met UAF pro-vice chancellor Dr Zafar Iqbal. Dr Iqbal told the delegation that the UAF was setting up working group to work with the ACIAR in future for other areas of collaborations. He said joint efforts would help address the agriculture issues and make development.

“We have to learn from each other’s experience so that the target of agriculture development and poverty alleviation could be achieved effectively. We have to shift towards value addition for uplift of the country keeping in view the health of the masses. In some value addition cases, it has been observed that adopted procedure is not good for health which requires change,” he added.

Dr Andikari said $1.3 million project would develop and improve the pulses value addition conditions.

Dr Kazmi said the ACIAR was working on a 10-year agenda for prosperity of the sector. “It provides a variety of resources to support the development of research projects with partner countries. The fact sheets, final reports, maps and other searchable tools have been developed to support the sharing of this knowledge,” he added.

Meanwhile, a Korean delegation also called on Dr Iqbal to discuss the issue of setting up an agricultural machinery training center at the UAF.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2018