ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Ambassador to United States Masood Khan has said that there are potential areas of cooperation between the agriculture universities of Pakistan and the United States and interventions needed to optimize agricultural yields through introduction of weather resistant and climate resilient seeds.
Talking to the Head of Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland Prof Matthew Hansen in Washington, he said recent momentum in Pak-US relations has provided an opportunity to further strengthen Pak-US cooperation in agriculture sector.
He underlined the need for more research on GMO as well as food and cash crops. He requested Prof Hansen to help develop university to university partnerships to carry out a research on advanced crop monitoring in Pakistan.
Prof Hansen said that through a project titled “Global Agricultural Monitoring (GLAM) Project” funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, the University of Maryland has provided technical assistance to build capacity of Pakistani statisticians in application of remote sensing in crop area estimation.
Under the project, the University of Maryland launched research to estimate wheat yield, and subsequently build the capacity of relevant Pakistani institutions.
Prof Hansen said that he was already engaged with Dr Iqrar Ahmed, Vice Chancellor of University of Agriculture Faisalabad and welcomed the collaboration between the two universities. He plans to discuss this in detail during his visit to Pakistan in January 2023.
Ambassador Masood Khan thanked Prof Hansen for his support and valuable partnership, and assured him of the Government f Pakistan’s continued support in building linkages between Pakistan’s universities with the University of Maryland.
