Speakers at international seminar stressed to develop and initiate collaborative research projects between the Experts of University of Prince Edward Island,Canada and PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi. They also emphasized to engage the local industry (growers, processors and machinery manufacturers) to develop precision agriculture technologies to meet the regional needs. They highlighted the involvement of local industry in research, collaboration with academia and research institutions, effective communication, extension and outreach can enhance adaptation of precision agriculture technologies in Pakistan.

They stated this while addressing at one day international seminar on Innovative Technologies in Agriculture, organized by Faculty of Agricultural Engineering of Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR), on July 23, 2019.

PMAS-AAUR Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Qamar-uz-Zaman was the chief guest while Director General Agricultural Engineering Division PARC Liaqat Ali Shahid was the guest of Honor.

Vice Chancellor Dr. Qamar-uz-Zaman highlighted the issues in agricultural development and stressed on the use of modern agricultural technology/machinery to enhance agriculture produce. He explained the role of academia in bringing change in agriculture sector and said that education plays a significant role in the development of any country. He also stressed that there is a dire need of strong link between academia and agriculture industry to address the problems and challenges of agriculture sector to boost the economy of Pakistan.He suggested to improve agricultural production system on scientific lines to enhance sustainable food production and urged the scientists of the university to play their role to create awareness among farming community about the latest techniques in the agriculture to make Pakistan a food sufficient country in order to feed the increasing population.

Keynote speaker, Dr. Aitizaz Farooque, Associate Professor, School of Sustainable Design Engineering, University of Prince Edward Island,Canada said that agriculture is a key resource to ensure food security at the planet. The increasing world's population demands more food for survival, as agricultural land is shrinking because of urbanization and intensification.He said that Agriculture production typically involves uniform applications of crop growing inputs, ignoring spatial and temporal variations in soil/crop/yield/weather and topographic attributes that exist within fields. Uniform application not only increases the production cost but also adversely affects our environment, he added.He was of the view that sustainable agriculture production requires discoveries, innovations and technical skill, which need to be integrated into traditional farming to achieve targeted applications of crop growing inputs on an as-needed basis. He said that precision agriculture technologies are meant to increase production efficiency, profitability and environmental efficiency.

Dr. Muhammad Azam Post-doctoral Research Associate, Chungbuk National University, South Korea talked about the hardware and software-based smart technologies for early flood warning system directly connected with the mobiles of the people.

Dr. Muhammad Hasan Ali Baig incharge, Institute of Geo Information and Earth Observation of PMAS-AAUR discussed the challenges in adoption of precision agriculture practices in Pakistan and provided the way forward in the context of remote sensing with special focus on hyper spectral remote sensing.

Dr Naveed Tahir delivered lecture on the use of innovative UAV based spraying technology application in Pakistan. He said that PMAS-AAUR is going to establish precision drone spraying technology center with the joint support of National center for International collaboration research on precision Agriculture Aviation pesticides spraying technology, South China Agricultural University Guangzhou, China. The use of this innovation technology will improve the efficiency of pesticides and fertilizer spraying application and will also help to reduce the human and environmental hazards which ultimately increase the yield of many crops by better controlling the pests or diseases at farm level.

Earlier, Dr. Atta-ul-Mohsin Director External Linkages of PMAS-AAUR gave welcome address and elaborated the aims and objectives of the seminar while at the end Dr. Tahir iqbal presented vote of thanks.