Pak, Foreign Experts Discuss Food Security In COVID-19 Scenario At Webinar

MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Aug, 2020 ) :Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture organized an online webinar in cooperation with Purdue university, USA, and Charles Sturt university Australia for discussions on food security amid COVID-19 scenario.

Dr. Paul D. Ebner from animal sciences department of Purdue University and Prof. Dr. Gavin Ramsay from Charles Sturt University gave a detailed insight to the participants on food security in COVID-19 situation.

Vice Chancellor MNSUA Prof. Dr. Asif Ali said on the occasion that novel coronavirus hurt the global economy and affected transportation of food. He underlined the need for a global strategy to ensure that the food supply chains remain intact all over the world.

He, however, added that virus scenario in Pakistan was not as much serious as was the case in some other countries.

He said, government took some initiatives to lessen impact of epidemic on agriculture sector and encouraged farmers to continue to grow food crops.

Dr. Paul Ebner gave valuable information on COVID-19 related agriculture research and underlined the need for improving agriculture syllabus and pedagogic process.

Giving statistics on COVID-19 he stressed on implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) in laboratories.

He also stressed on restrictions on traditional activities in universities.

Dr. Gavin Ramsay spoke at length on what steps should be taken in health and education sectors during virus epidemic.

He said that contageous diseases largely affect import/export of pulses particularly gram pulse. He also highlighted importance of livestock in agriculture sector development.

Ramsay said that COVID-19 should be considered as an opportunity to search for new horizons and be a part of the economic change.

VC Dr. Asif Ali concluded the webinar with highlighting the importance of farm mechanization to reduce human intervention and prevent chances of virus spread.

He also emphasized the need for taking forward the research on microbiology. He stressed on wearing mask, washing hands and social distancing to.check virus spread.

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Ashfaq, Dr. Mirza Abid Mahmood, foreign experts and experts from south Punjab agriculture forum besides teachers and students attended the webinar.