HYDERABAD: Florence Rolle, who heads the Sindh chapter of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), has said that her institution is offering its services in farm sector’s development in the province and encouraging women’s participation in the process.

She was speaking at the annual exhibition of software, applications and models developed by final-year students of Sindh Agriculture University’s Information Technology Centre held on the campus on Tuesday in collaboration with the Hyderabad Information and Software House Association and Gaxton.

Ms Rolle said that establishment of a centre for expansion of per-acre yield, agribusinesses and various other programmes for students would be completed soon with SAU’s support.

Representatives of other stakeholders, including industrial concerns and academia, called for promoting agriculture technology to develop value-added agri-businesses and create opportunities for women’s participation in agriculture and information technology.

SAU holds exhibition of IT-related farm projects, job fair

A job fair was also organised by IT-related private companies based in Karachi and Hyderabad to provide internship and job opportunities to SAU students. The fair was inaugurated by special assistant to Sindh CM on Information, science and technology Tanzeela Ume Habiba along with SAU vice chancellor Dr Fateh Marri.

Ms Habiba said Sindh government was working on various projects for youths and launching programmes for them. She said that youths were working in business-oriented projects, artificial intelligence and agri-tech as per industry’s demand. She noted that the exhibition was a confirmation of talent in youths.

VC Dr Fateh Marri said that IT was a growing sector which was playing an important role in development of all sectors, including medical, agriculture, engineering, livestock, manufacturing and e-business.

He said the projects and models prepared by SAU students were of high standards. With the help of IT in farm sector, the country’s GDP and export of farm produce could be increased, he said.

Dr Bhawani Shankar Choudhry, a distinguish professor and head of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Karachi, said that sustainable agriculture was inevitable for food security, improvement of children’s nutrition and proper use of available resources.

Dr Jan Mohammad Marri, the pro vice chancellor of SAU’s Umerkot sub-campus, and Dr Aijaz Ali Khooharo, the dean of agricultural social sciences faculty, said that IT had changed the world within a few decades. He pointed out that IT had brought world’s economic and business activities and markets just a click away.

Ms Mona Shah, Mukesh Kumar, Syed Azfar Hussain and others emphasised the need for enhancement of technical linkage between academia and industry.

At the exhibition, IT students had put around 40 projects on display. They included health and agriculture software, monitoring systems, tracking systems, biometric system, quality detection and artificial intelligence tools, smart healthcare systems, animals/insects monitoring systems, mobile applications and other models. ITC director Dr Mir Sajjad Talpur, Dr Mohammad Yaqoob Koondhar and others also spoke.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2023