Staff Reporter
A total of 4442 graduates’ of Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR) were awarded degrees while 90 students were decorated with Medals at the 20th Convocation, here on Thursday.
As many as 33 students received Ph.D degrees, 710 awarded with M.Phil/ MS degrees, 1469 Masters Degrees, while 2230 students got undergraduate degree in their respective disciplines. Gold medals were awarded to 55 students on their outstanding performance in their academic record while 17 bagged silver and 18 secured bronze in the convocation.
Secretary General, Network of Academies of Sciences of Islamic Countries (NASIC) & Former Vice Chancellor of PMAS-AAUR, Prof. Dr. Khalid Mahmood Khan was the chief guest while PMAS-AAUR Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Qamar Zaman, Deans, Directors, Faculty members, graduates and their parents also attended the convocation.
Prof. Dr. Khalid Mahmood Khan, while addressing said that agriculture sector is facing the daunting challenge of ensuring food security for ever growing population of Pakistan, which is projected to increase from the current 208 million to more than 400 million by 2050 under the business as usual scenario.
He further said that agriculture and livestock sectors have to produce additional food to feed fast expanding population in the face if shrinking land and water resources per capita available for agriculture and looming impacts of climate changes on agriculture and livestock sectors.
He stressed that agricultural scientists have the responsibility to come up with smart agriculture technologies and new climate-resilient farming systems especially for the rain-fed areas of Pakistan to enhance agricultural productivity, increase farm profitability and enhance national food security.
He suggested that there is an urgent need to come up with modern cost-effective food processing and postharvest management technologies to build efficient and reliable agri-food value chains for producing diverse value-added agri-food products to substitute imports and increase exports.
