RAWALPINDI, May 14 (APP): The National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) organized a seminar on Sunday in a bid to bolster its collaboration with different organizations to ensure quality education and excel in research in agriculture –a linchpin of the country’s economy.
NUMS Department of Nutrition & Dietetics (NDND) took the initiative to implement a comprehensive program of accreditation of agriculture and related education degree programs, specifically BS program in Human Nutrition and Dietetics based on policies, procedures, and criteria set up by the NAEAC of Higher Education Commission (HEC) to ensure high-quality standards of agriculture education.
The Quality Assurance and Accreditation Awareness Seminar held by NAEAC was in line with SDG 4, that is, Quality Education.
Dr Abdul Momin, heading NDND said that Pakistan’s population had already crossed the 230 million mark and given its current growth of 1.8 per cent per annum, the projection was that it would almost double by 36 years. Hence, if efforts were not mounted to achieve maximum crop yields, the supply of food to cater to an ever-growing population and in the face of squeezing agricultural land, would emerge as a serious challenge.
He said it was necessary that the standard of agriculture-related courses should be raised to the level where less land could produce maximum yields by using the latest agriculture research. He also referred to the concepts of vertical farming in Japan, the use of trickle irrigation system to water crops in a water-stressed country like Pakistan and intercropping concept for boosting the yield of crops.
Secretary NAEAC Dr Abdul Ghaffar, in his remarks on the occasion, assured that NAEAC would fully support the universities across Pakistan to raise standards of agriculture-related courses for producing students, well-equipped with the latest techniques to significantly increase crop yields. He dwelt at length on the internal and external evaluation criterion and emphasized on four major areas like strength & quality of faculty, curriculum design & development, infrastructure & learning resources, and students support & progression.
The seminar was attended by Prof. Dr Aisha Mohyuddin, Dr Umar Farooq and other senior faculty members and students.