A delegation comprising of 13 members of the National Management College (NMC) Lahore headed by Mr. Fareed Mehmood Chaudhry, faculty member In-charge visited Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR on April 22, 2014 in connection with the inland study tour of the senior management course. The participants belonged to different occupational groups and services like Pakistan Administrative Service, Information, Pakistan Audit and Accounts, Foreign Service of Pakistan, Pakistan Customs Service, Postal, Police, Railways, Inland Revenue, Secretariat and Provincial Services.

On the occasion, Prof. Dr. Rai Niaz Ahmad, Vice Chancellor, PMAS-AAUR gave a detailed presentation relating to existing infrastructure and the future short and long term vision of the PMAS-AAUR. 

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Rai Niaz Ahmad highlighted the significance of close collaboration among organizations and mentioned that Arid University is working with different R&D organizations in the field of agriculture, livestock, range management, animal breeding  & genetics, wildlife and fisheries to find solutions of problems faced by farming community. University is also working on the joint research/development projects with other organizations/institutes to accelerate the production of plant nurseries of olive, grapes, citrus & other fruits for the purpose of research, education and supply to the farmers, he added.

He informed the participants of delegation that University has already converted its Research Farm at Chakwal road into a Model Farm by collecting rain water into  reservoirs and water saved amounting to 45 acres-feet, sufficient to irrigate its entire farm of 250 acres. Besides, conventional cropping practices at the farm, the university has cultivated orchards of citrus, olive, date palm, fig, grapes and vegetables under tunnel farming, he added. He said that University has also established a fancy Birds-cum-Fish Aviary and model of roof rainwater harvesting at University Campus. He further stated that all these water ponds are also being used for fish raising.

During visit to Water reservoir, Vice Chancellor briefed the delegation that this reservoir would be used as model for the farmers, where integrated approaches of modern farming would be used like drip/sprinkler irrigation for orchards, tunnel farming for vegetable production etc. This would also be used as demonstration site for the farmers of the region to adopt the identified modern farming techniques. He emphasized that our focus should be on rainwater harvesting, water resource development and value addition of farm produce.

The delegation also visited different departments’ laboratories, field visit including Ostrich Farm, model of roof rainwater harvesting and was impressed by the research and development activities at the University. The delegation appreciated the efforts of PMAS-AAUR in the development of higher education and research, especially in the field of arid agriculture, where the harvestable recourses are limited. The delegation thanked the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Rai Niaz Ahmad for providing an excellent opportunity to visit the campus and updating about ongoing research activities of the University.