ISLAMABAD, June 24: Absence of any link between research conducted by academia and policy-making organs of the government is one of the main question marks on Pakistan's ability to cope with the impending challenges in trade and economic development.

This was stated at the concluding session of a two-day national workshop attended by senior faculty members of various agriculture universities here on Thursday. The programme organized by Actionaid Pakistan, an NGO, aimed to obtain views on academia's role in helping the country meet the WTO challenges.

It was noted that the Agriculture University, Faisalabad, had already set up a WTO cell and instituted postgraduate courses in WTO and agribus management. The participants agreed on the need to prepare the curricula for teaching WTO-related topics at university level.

Questions arose as to why wheat yields in the Indian Punjab were three times those of the Pakistani province. It was noted that the Agriculture University in Ludhiana was patterned on the Agriculture College, Lyallpur, as it existed in 1947.

Even though the college in Faisalabad was upgraded to the university level, it decayed. For example, in east Punjab, teaching, research and extension continued to be under the same umbrella, that is the vice- chancellor, while in Pakistan, these were separated from each other in the early 1960s.

This made for a coordinated functioning of all the branches which maintained a close liaison with the ordinary farmers. In the Indian Punjab, wheat was sown in the first week of November all over the province as advised by the university's experts in contrast to Pakistan where the sowing operations went on from October to February. Hence the depressed yields, it was observed.

Another difference was the absence of landlordism across the border. In Pakistan, the entire farming community was supposedly represented on every forum by a handful of individuals masquerading as "farmers" on the basis of their connections in the government.

In fact, they were not farmers but only rich businessmen or absentee landlords. Prof Dr Bherulal Devrajain, dean Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam, stressed the need for changing the service structure of the faculty in order to draw to it the best minds.

Research as a career and vocation has been at disadvantage against bureaucratic positions which promised quick ascent in the career hierarchy. This is in contrast to teachers and researchers who often entered a job and then retired from it in the same grade.

Khadim Hussain of the NGO recalled that educational institutions used to have a close liaison with civil society in the past. In order to ensure due weightage for their views and concerns in the corridors of power, they would have to revive their role as social activists, he maintained.