STAFF REPORT ISB: The UC Davis has recently launched a $17 million US-Pakistan Food and Agriculture Centre. The five-year project, funded by the USAID, will help faculty and graduate students to study and perform research at UC Davis and the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF) in Pakistan.
According to details, during its first years the project will consist of workshops to help Faisalabad build relationships both through technology and entrepreneurship.
“Establishment of this new centre will allow us to build on our bilateral efforts with a renewed emphasis on an exchange of faculty and graduate students,” said James Hill, Associate Dean Emeritus of International Programs for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Those present at the event included Joanna Regulska, Vice Provost and Associate Chancellor of Global Affairs, Alan Van Egmond, Senior Policy Advisor for Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Ashfaq Ahmad Chattha, a thematic leader for the Centre of Advanced Studies at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.
UAF is the leading agriculture university in Pakistan and UC Davis is the number-one ranked college of agriculture in the whole world.
The plan also includes the construction of libraries, laboratories and research facilities in Pakistan. The new facilities will help with the programmes themes of biotechnology, outreach, agricultural policy and climate change.
The project will focus on crops such as wheat, cotton, rice, sugarcane and maize, specifically on their abilities to adapt to climate change and to become more drought-resistant.