Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR) organized Agri. Innovation Expo. & Food Gala 2017, on January 10, 2017, with an aim to highlight innovative creative business agriculture products developed by students and to provide them entrepreneurship opportunities in order to cope with the challenge of unemployment.

The Expo will also provide an opportunity to access the potential of Pakistan’s agricultural market and to bring together all stakeholders from the public, private, academia, social sectors on one platform to explore new technologies/innovations in the field of food & agriculture sector.

The event was organized by PMAS-AAUR, University Institute of Management Sciences (UIMS) and Office of Research, Innovation & Commercialization (ORIC). PMAS-AAUR Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Rai Niaz Ahmad was the chief guest while Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (RCCI), President, Raja Amer Iqbal was the guest of honor on the occasion. Also present was Mr. Muhammad Asghar, Regional Business Coordinator of Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA), Rawalpindi.

The expo was attended by prominent academicians and researchers, faculty members, students and a wide range of representatives from national and multinational companies, who lauded the efforts of the expo management team in organizing such a successful event.

Prof. Dr. Rai Niaz Ahmad , Vice Chancellor PMAS-AAUR, while addressing,  said that it is need of the hour to strengthen industry-academia linkage to endorse business activities and PMAS-AAUR is playing its due role in this regard. He said that management science students must take the lead in commercializing the agricultural products. Our development is dependent on the extent to which our students can take agricultural produce, make it value added and market it in the international market. He encouraged the students and teachers to keep on making efforts for starting businesses which would provide employment to the poor people in Pakistan. He said that this expo will provide entrepreneurship opportunities to the students so that they could become employer instead of seeking employment.

 RCCI President,  Raja Amer Iqbal said that agriculture is a backbone of Pakistan economy and innovative ideas are essential to make the sustainable development as a step towards meeting the demands of modern era. He assured full support from RCCI to provide opportunity to new entrepreneurs to show case and commercialize their goods. He lauded the efforts of PMAS-AAUR for bringing new ideas into agricultural sector and assured full support from RCCI to fund such projects which would helpful to bring about innovation and employment.

At the end, chief guest PMAS-AAUR Vice Chancellor along with President RCCI distributed prizes among the winner students of different innovative ideas.