FAISALABAD, April 26: The 16th convocation of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad was held here on Thursday wherein 61 research scholars were given the PhD degrees in different fields of agriculture for the year 2004.

The convocation presided over by Governor Khalid Maqbool was attended by a large number of students, parents and faculty members.

As many as 32 students were awarded the M.Phil degree, 16 MSc (Hons), 1,057 MSc, 359 BSc (Hons), 96 DVM, 42 BSc engineering and 42 BSc (home economics) degrees. About 1,738 students had passed their examination of different programmes in 2004.

At least 38 students were crowned with gold, silver and bronze medals for achievements in their respective fields of education and research. Prizes were also distributed among students who performed well in co-curricular activities.

Addressing the participants, the governor said the work on Kalabagh dam would soon be taken in hand to revolutionize changes in all spheres of life, particularly in agriculture and energy sectors.

Regarding the Indian subsidized agriculture system, he said Pakistan had to distance itself from subsidy because the system prevailing in the neighbouring country would face a failure in future.

He stressed the need for water conservation on account of rapid depletion of country’s water resources.

Mr Maqbool urged the UAF administration to establish a school of life sciences and an institute of chemical sciences in faculty of sciences and state-of-the-art laboratories, lecture rooms, a sports complex, a museum, seminar rooms and a gymnasium.

A swimming pool should also be constructed at the Postgraduate Agricultural Research Station (PARS) to provide all facilities to students of international standards.

He also underlined the need for introducing new academic disciplines like biotech, meat technology, food-processing and value addition.

Spelling out the initiative taken by the government in the education sector, he said the HEC had been funding for development of new disciplines and other research projects. He said that a Rs1.4 billion grant had been released to the UAF in the development sector during the last seven years.

The governor said that five multi-storey hostels and sports complex would be constructed in the UAF to meet the growing enrollment of students.

Expressing his satisfaction over the performance of the UAF, he said the institution had produced a record number of 61 PhD scholars in 2004.

Highlighting the achievements, vice-chancellor Dr Bashir Ahmed said that UAF scientists had won commendable research projects of various natures from different national and international institutions.