FAISALABAD, Dec 6: Punjab Governor and University of Agriculture Faisalabad chancellor Khalid Maqbool has stressed the need to transfer the traditional agriculture into market driven force to face the challenges of escalating population, increasing urbanisation and changing global marketing systems.

Inaugurating an international conference on `Productivity and growth in agriculture: strategies and interventions’ at the UAF here on Wednesday, he said the agriculture was the mainstay of our national economy and a source to provide livelihood to a major chunk of our population.

The governor said the time had come to develop the agriculture as a thriving economy sector through scientific input and value addition.

He said the government was introducing a new agriculture marketing system to ensure reasonable price of crops to tillers.

Underlining the importance of water for agriculture, he said that all dams, including Kalabagh, would be constructed by 2016 while land levelers were also being provided at subsidised rates.

The governor said that the UAF was playing a major role in resolving the agriculture-related issues at the farm level.

He termed the mega project of Veterinary Faculty at PARS a significant contribution to rural areas in terms of addressing the livestock, poultry and animals’ issues in a befitting manner.

The Zarai Tarraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL), he said, was providing soft-term loans of up to Rs2.5 million to buffalo breeders. He underlined the need for enhancing the milk production at least one liter per buffalo in the country.

Highlighting the vitality of water in agriculture, the governor said that the government was spending billions of rupees on lining the watercourses and construction of new water reservoirs.

He said the faster growth rate of population was squeezing the per capita land and water availability as the average cultivated area of 0.72 acres in 1972 had now been reduced to 0.36 acres in 2002-3. Technical sessions of the conference will remain continue till Thursday (today).

AWARDED: The PhD club of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) has grown to include 505 scholars with the awarding of four new degrees.