SAU: A road map to sustainable agriculture

Sindh inherits the fertile Indus Valley, which is well known in respect of its glorious past. The ancient city of Moen-Jo-Daro remained centre of this civilization. The excavation of Moen-Jo-Daro talks about prosperity of Sindh for the production of agricultural commodities in earliest times. This province of Pakistan was a net exporter of food supplies to the entire Sub-continent during the nineteenth century.

The need for training in agricultural professions was realized with the construction of Sukkur Barrage in Sindh Province, and the King George V Institute of Agriculture was established at Sakrand, District Nawabshah in 1939. A three years B.Sc. (Agriculture) degree was offered in the beginning. This program was converted into a four year degree course in mid forties. Sindh Agriculture College was shifted to Tandojam in 1954. The college witnessed significant improvements in the sixties in terms of physical infra-structure, student enrolment and introduction of post-graduate programs. Demand for the establishment of a separate agricultural university for Sindh Province was echoed in mid sixties. Consequently, the University was established under the Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Act on 1^st March 1977.

Main Objectives        

The main objectives of establishing this university was to provide high quality education in agriculture to youth of agrarian communities of rural Sindh to ensure food security and help their parents to increase household income through increased agricultural production; however other objectives include:

·        Produce service-oriented graduates;

·        Focus on higher education and research in agriculture sector

·        Impart  quality education

·        Conduct problem oriented research to develop and transfer technology at grassroot level

·        Meet the manpower requirements of line agencies   

·        Promote sustainability in agriculture sector

·        Foster liaison and collaboration to other stakeholders in education, research, agro-communities and agro-industry

Location

The University is located at Tandojam, which is about 18 kilometers east of Hyderabad, the second largest city of Sindh Province. It is 188 kilometers away from Karachi. Tandojam is a small town having rural settlement base and provides a highly suitable academic environment. The town geographically falls within central Sindh, which has mild weather and low rainfall. The University has a beautiful main campus spreading over 416 acres which includes splendid administration block, impressive faculty buildings, air-conditioned library, lush green gardens, residential colony, medical dispensary and a rest house besides students hostels, residential colony and buildings of other agricultural institutions such as Nuclear Institute of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Institute, Sindh Local Government  Rural Development Academy, Agricultural Engineering Workshop, Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and Drainage  Research Centre.

Programs

The main objective of this university is to produce human resource in agriculture and allied sciences. Sindh Agriculture University offers multidisciplinary degree programs both at undergraduate and postgraduate level leading to PhD degree through five faculties and one centre (Table 1).

Table-1:  Faculties and Degrees offered

System of Education

The millennium needs of the skills oriented education in the field of Agricultural Sciences, Agricultural Engineering, Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Sciences and Bio-informatics and Management Sciences can be satiated at the Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, which offers a full time B.Sc.(Hons.) Agriculture, B.E. (Agricultural Engineering), D.V.M. and BSIT including M.Sc., M.Phil and Ph.D. programs extensively structured to provide the students a learning environment incorporating all the facilities. The educational programme is characterized by scientific approach and ingrained with state-of-the art technologies in teaching, learning and research in accordance with the time and place. The continuum education at the University provides a unique opportunity for short courses and training programs for all the stakeholders associated with agro business activity. The University has one off-campus constituent Agricultural College at Dokri, District, Larkana, to satisfy the needs of agro-based entrepreneur in the upper sindh region and in their own vicinity.

Career programs in Agriculture and allied disciplines are structured to provide intensive education through class instructions, laboratory practicals, field practices, case studies, group discussions, seminars, research projects and term reports.

It is ensured by the authorities that curriculum satisfies the needs of time and is current and job oriented.

The faculty comprises of competent professionals who are experienced and proficient in their subjects. The faculty is an amalgamation of foreign and local qualification and experience from highly reputed institutions. The University has established bilateral link programs with Washington State University, Pullman, University of Wales, Bangore and Moscow Agriculture Academy, Timiryaziv.

The campus is beautifully made and is equipped with latest educational facilities, fully equipped laboratories, central library, sports grounds, gymkhana and cafeteria all interspersed with lawns and encompassed as they are extremely conducive to academic learning. The University has two spacious auditoria where regular invited lectures, seminars, conferences and various entertainment shows are arranged.

Co-curricular activities are also practiced for student development. Impetus is given to seminars, contests, recreation and other events. These activities enhance the capabilities of the students, realizing the objectives of the student training and development.

Sindh Agriculture University is a residential campus and provides hostel facilities to about 2000 students out of total enrolment of about over 7000 students with a faculty strength of 205 and 1473 staff and employees.

Sustainable Agriculture for Food Security

The Pakistan population is to reach 220 million by 2020. Therefore, we  must have the potential and the ability to meet growing demands for food, for ever increasing population, for which the planning in the past, had been erratic and uncertain. The greatest challenge lying ahead for all of us is to increase food production while maintaining the ecosystem stability, and rehabilitating the environment. The issues and challenges in this regard are to be overcome in a manner, so that, everyone can be adequately and nutritiously fed, without over-exploiting and over consuming the natural resources thereby affecting the earth’s ecosystem.

This is more so necessary in the light of Agriculture Scenario of past 57 years on which we have only witnessed stagnation instead of expansion and environmental degradation instead of upgradation. This has further been aggravated due to inadequate resource allocation to the sector commensurating with its contribution in G.D.P. This has further jeoperdised R&D efforts in the sector to keep pace with time and the needs which happen to be dynamic in nature.

Due to intensive cultivation and over exploitation, there has been a continuous decline in per cpita availability of land resources in the country. As a result of unabated population growth in the country coupled with dwindling water resources. It is projected now, that almost all future increases in food production need to be attained  vertically, i.e. as a result of increase in yield (output per unit land area/animal per unit time) and from growing additional crops during a given year on the same land. There are really, no other viable options. This underscores the need and the importance of science and new technologies, for meeting future national and global food needs. Environment issues will become more challenging as more land, water, fertilizers and pesticides are diverted for food production to attain higher productivity. New technologies will accentuate for the use of more, not less, inputs and chemicals (fertilizer, pesticides) to increase food production. This is going to happen as population continues to increase and demands continue to inflate.

Degradation of environment, arising from agricultural production, is present, in many forms. Agricultural production is chief user of our land and water resources. Debates will continue on issues of food safety, deleterious effects on fish and wildlife, endangered species and carcinogenicity arising out of agriculture inputs leading to environmental degradation and pollution. It has not yet been clarified by anyone, as to what an extent, environmentally sustainable set of agricultural production technologies be? The economics as well as the technology of development are changing so rapidly that older assumptions are of no consequence and valid any more.

As a matter of fact, many societal global problems have emerged, relating to agricultural sustainability and food security. These include poverty, malnutrition, inflation, unemployment, soil erosion, deforestation, desertification, firewood shortages, toxic chemicals in our environment, changing climate impacts, and agricultural production stability. These problems strongly suggest, that developing world and ourselves, to reassess our needs and seek technologies, that will result in stable production at higher levels. We must address ourselves seriously to their accomplishment in a sustainable manner. Sustainable agriculture is based on the sustainable use of natural   heritage including land, water and agricultural biodiversity, (plants and animals). Sustainable use of these resources, in turn, requires that their ownership and control lie with decentralized agricultural communities in order to generate livelihoods, provide food and harness conservation strategies. These three elements ie ecological stability, livelihood opportunity and food security must be the essential ingredients of our agriculture policies, and programs as they are both equitable and sustainable. In this regard the strategic vision document developed for the university highlights following focused areas of research and activity and establishment of infrastructure to accomplish the challenges lying ahead.

Future Planning

It has been anticipated that the ‘World’ will be a different place in the year 2020. Many of the trends which have begun to emerge will continue to be evident, but other changes may be more difficult to project. Demands on the use of natural resource base will almost surely increase in ways we cannot even imagine today. In a finite, interdependent, and rapidly changing world, the maintenance of strong food, fiber, and forest production systems and the protection and wise use of our natural resources have become an imperative. Our national agriculture is now integrated with world markets. The interdependency of agricultural production practices with conservation of land and water systems has now linked farmers with environmentalists. Food safety concerns and ground water contamination are changing contemporary thinking about food and fiber production with the balance of nature and sustainable rationale. Genetic engineering, biotechnology, alternative agricultural practices, and sustainable rural development are simultaneously linked with global climate change, acid rain, ground water contamination and extinction of species.

The Sindh Agriculture University therefore, has an obligation to provide leadership for the changes which have been outlined above through its research, teaching and extension programs. The faculty and the staff of the University with their indomitable will and commitment have the potential to come to the national and global aspirations. It is expected from the students of Agriculture Sciences that they must not only be knowledgeable about their profession but develop critical thinking skills in a broad ecological, social, and economic perspective. The students of tomorrow must also be able to understand the interrelationship of their activity to an interdependent environmental world shared by food producers and consumers alike.

The Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam is identified amongst the most reputable institutions in the country at the moment and with continuous and sincere efforts of the management and leadership that we have, we hope to emerge as the leadership institution of the future.