Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Vice-Chancellor Dr Fateh Muhammad Marri has said that after the devastation of agriculture and livestock in recent rains and floods, the students pursuing higher education in various universities will suffer a serious financial crisis as a majority of students and their parents are associated with agriculture and earn a livelihood from livestock.
He said that due to recent rains the agriculture of Sindh has been seriously damaged, especially since the cotton crop has been destroyed, in the coming cotton season, we will not even be able to get cotton seeds, while we will have to import cotton for our textile industry.
“Shortly we will have to face various problems including lack of certified seeds of wheat, vegetables, oilseeds, and other crops, while we will have to give importance to late varieties and alternative crops,” he added.
Dr Fateh Marri said that the experts will have to play a responsible role to get the farmers of Sindh and the country out of the economic crisis, and the cattle are also facing a lot of problems due to this rain, he said that university veterinary experts have been diagnosed skin, stomach and other various diseases in animals, due to continuous standing in dirty water and drinking rainwater.
He said that due to the heavy rains in Sindh, students studying in universities will be affected the most, and poor families will not be able to pay their children’s fees because of this, the future of more than one lakh children is at risk.
He said that we are in contact with various institutions including the federal, and provincial governments, and HEC to increase the number of freeships, student loans, Qarz-e-Hasna, and scholarships for poor and affected students. He said an online conference will be held in which experts from SAU and IBA Karachi will present their papers and jointly Suggestions will be made to solve the problems of farmers affected by floods.
Dean Faculty of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences Dr Syed Ghiyasuddin Shah Rashdi, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences Dr Aijaz Ali Khoharo, Dr Bachal Bhutto, Dr Abdul Latif Bhutto, Dr Ahmad Nawaz Tunio, and others were also present on this occasion.
