Monday, March 19, 2012

PARC will benefit from IRRI, CIMMYT

Islamabad—Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) has said that PARC will benefit from International Rice Research Institute ( IRRI ) Philippines & International Wheat and Maize Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) to develop successful Cereal Knowledge Bank (CKB) Model for linking agriculture research with extension & farmers in Pakistan. This he stated while addressing the concluding session of the two day workshop organized by Directorate of Scientific Information to develop outline for Pakistan Cereal Knowledge Bank in collaboration with provincial agricultural institutions.

It is to be noted that the Cereal Knowledge Bank (CKB) is the world’s leading repository of extension and training materials related to cereal and cereal production. The CKB was launched in January 2008 and is managed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) as a service to people working to improve the well-being of poor cereal farmers and consumers. ”. It has three main components: Rice Knowledge Bank, Maize Knowledge Bank, and the Wheat Knowledge Bank.

Speaking at this occasion Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad said that the fast and effective transfer of knowledge and technologies developed by agricultural scientists from the research laboratory to the farmer’s field has always been one of the biggest challenges facing those in agricultural research and development. He said most of the successful technologies that can play an effective role for increasing the income of the farmers and can strengthen the county’s economy can not reach to the farmers due to lack of transfer of technology mechanism which is the main cause of low productivity and poverty.

Dr. Iftikhar said that new standard for knowledge and information access within the agricultural development community will give a great boost to the faremrs for increasing their income and alleviate poverty. Dr. David Shires, Consultant International Education and Training Practices, IRRI The training course will help strengthen the participants’ knowledge and skills and further to help enhance capacity of farmer intermediaries effectively.

He said that to run the Cereal Knowledge Bank effectively there is a need for good quality knowledge, desire for use of that knowledge and people’s willingness to use this knowledge is the right mechanism that can play a significant role for dissemination of information to end users. Ms Shehnaz Zubari, Director, SIU apprized the participants that PARC is mandated to coordinate agricultural research and development linkage with national and international organization for improving agriculture sector of the country in collaboration with provincial institutions and ensure food security of the country. The workshop was attended by representatives of provincial agricultural institution, extension services including Azad Jammu & Kashmir.

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