RAHIM YAR KHAN: The In-service Agriculture Training Institute (IATI), RYK, an institute established more than six decades back to promote agriculture in the region is an ignored asset of the government with its dilapidated building and other vital infrastructure.

IATI, RYK, was originally established at Khanpur in 1952-53 with a capacity to train 50 Agriculture Field Assistants (AFAs) through a one-year certificate programme. Later, in 1958 a Village Aid Programme (VAP) was initiated by the then Bahawalpur State for settlement of migrated people and train and assist them in agriculture.

For the purpose, different portions of the main building of IATI were constructed on a 44-acre piece of land near old (Khanpur) city with a 25 acres Research Farm at Chak 101-P.

In 1961 VAP was closed and its entire staff and assets were transferred to the provincial agriculture department.

IATI Khanpur was shifted to VAP building here the same year and its training capacity was enhanced from 50 to 100 AFAs. In 1966-67 the one-year certificate programme was upgraded to a two-year diploma programme.

Then IATI got affiliation with the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) during 1979-80 and in 200 the two-year diploma was declared equivalent to intermediate. In 2007 this diploma was upgraded to 3-year Diploma in Agriculture Sciences (DAS).

Currently the institute has total 132 employees, including teaching, administrative and supporting staff. There are workshops, laboratories, hostels, an auditorium and a residential colony owned by the institute but their buildings are in a dilapidated condition and no maintenance work, except whitewashing, had been done during the last 58 years.

In 2007 a library, a computer lab and three classrooms were added to the institute through the Human Resource Programme of Punjab government.

An IATI official, requesting anonymity, said an agriculture technical board should be established to merge all such institutes that were established in Sargodha, Layyah, Rawalpindi and Multan.

He said the faculty models of the UAF and IATI, RYK, did not match with each other. He said that contract-based appointments in IATI were creating problems and there was no permission of projects in the institute.

IATI Deputy Director Imtiaz Ahmed told Dawn that the institute could be used as a hub for promoting cottage industry in this area.

He said honey bee farming (Apiculture), silk worm farming (Sericulture), mushroom cultivation, food technology, farmers’ IT training and farmers technology transfer center in the institute could be used to benefit the farmers of RYK where cotton and sugarcane was cultivated on 500,000 and 600,000 acres, respectively, while there were mango orchards on 72,000 acres.

He stressed that the IATI could also be converted into a sub-campus of the UAF which could offer BS and MS programmes with its huge infrastructure located in center of the RYK city.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2019