FAISALABAD: The prime objective of research is to serve community and in this connection commercialization of new technologies and inventions developed by scientists will be a prerequisite, said Dr Asif Ali, Director Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC), University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF).
He was addressing a meeting of the businessmen and industrialists in Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) here.
He paid best tribute to the vision of those who had established Agriculture College in 1906 in Faisalabad. They provided a comprehensive network of irrigation and railway and thus laid down a strong foundation for the future commercialization of the agriculture produce.
Substantiating this point, he said that textile industry in now flourishing in this part as cotton was the main product of this region. He also touched upon the aims and objectives of the universities and said that the main objective is to lay down a strong foundation for economic development. This objective cannot be achieved in isolation and hence a strong link between industry and academia is imperative. He said that the objective of his visit to FCCI is also to convince the business community to play its role in the commercialization of the technologies developed by UAF. He told that Agriculture College was upgraded into a university in 1961 and its growth is still continuing. “It has seven facilities and 500 PhD’s are working round the clock on basic as well as applied sciences”, he added.
He said that the latest facality added in this university is the faculty of food and nutrition and its objective is value addition and commercialization of the agriculture produce.
Professor Dr. Asif Ali thanked the USAID for extending financial and technical cooperation in the establishment of centre for advanced studies in food, security and agriculture. He said that yet another objective of this facility in the main streaming of female population. He quoted the last visit of Engineer Rizwan Ashraf immediate past president of the FCCI to ORIC and said that he had pin pointed some basic problems confronted by trade and industry and told that ORIC is seriously working on these projects. He further told that UAF has best and high tech testing laboratories fully equipped with latest gadgets which could also be utilized by local industries.
He told that university is also working on renewable energy resources and treatment of waste water. He disclosed that within next couple of months a new project will be launched for the treatment of waste water of Paharang drain. It would not only help in resolving the environment related issues but also help in recycling of waste water.
Dr. Asif told that UAF has inked 118 MOU’s with different national and international institutions including one with FCCI. He asked the local business community to attend a function organized by Distinguished Innovation, Collaboration and Entrepreneurship (DICE) on November 24 and 25.
Governor Punjab Rafiq Rajwana and President Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry Mian Muhammad Idrees have been invited to attend it. The main objective of this function is to strengthen industry-academia linkages by exploiting new ideas into business models.
Responding to a question, he said that Kinno was originally developed by the University of California. It proved very successful in Pakistan and now UAF is working to develop and market seedless Kinno to cater to the needs of international buyers. UAF has also developed 10 new varieties of most exotic Pakistani fruit mango which will be suitable for export purposes. He told that university has also a spacious and splendid expo center which could be utilized for holding international level exhibitions.
Earlier, President FCCI Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz, in his address of welcome gave a brief introduction o f FCCI and said that it is the third premier chamber of Pakistan. “It is an apex platform of the business, trade and industrial community of this city having more than 500 members within its fold.” He also welcomed the creation of ORIC in UAF and said that its activities are very encouraging and productive. He said that Pakistan is rich in natural resources which are suitable for the agriculture. Being an agrarian economy, agriculture had 45 percent share in our exports. It also contributes 21 percent towards GDP and nearly 67 percent population is engaged in the agriculture sector, he said and added that cotton, fabrics, clothing and apparel textiles are the major industries of this city.
However, unfortunately the most beneficial research work being done by our universities could not deliver its benefits to the industry as academia and industry were working in isolation. He hoped that ORIC will bridge this gap and our industries will take benefit of the research work being done particularly at UAF for strengthening the industry-academia linkage and value addition.
The function was also addressed by Dr Monica Alandete-Saez, Director analysis and outreach PIPRA, Dr David Jefferson, Law and Policy Analysis PIPRA and Dr. Bashir Ahmed Director Center for Advanced Studies in Food Security and Agriculture.
