PAKISTAN is an agricultural country having millions of hectares of land cultivated through the world’s largest irrigation network. The operation, maintenance and repair, as well as the development of the entire irrigation network from dams and rivers to distributaries and minors are looked after by Wapda and the provincial irrigation departments.

BSc/ BE agriculture engineering is a comprehensive degree in which civil, environmental and mechanical engineering disciplines are taught over four years. An agriculture engineer studies nine engineering core courses on irrigation, drainage, hydrology, hydraulics, constructions, etc., whereas, in civil engineering, only five core courses are taught. Five more related courses on agriculture, like crop water requirement, soil and surveying, are also taught to agriculture engineers, whereas civil engineers learn only two related courses.

An agriculture engineer knows well how to operate the need-based irrigation network efficiently as per the crop water requirement. Recently, the Gilgit-Baltistan Public Works Department (PWD) and the International Fund Agriculture Development (Ifad) invited applications for the posts of four assistant executive engineers in the department through the Federal Public Service Commission.

Applications were invited only from civil engineers, while agriculture engineers were completely ignored. The relevant authorities should employ the people who are best suited to solve the problems of agriculture.

Rifaqat Gilgiti
Gilgit

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2021