Miles Toder, Deputy Mission Director USAID, on Monday said that women empowerment and agricultural development were essential to make the development and to alleviate the poverty from Pakistan. He chaired scholarship award ceremony held for women in agriculture at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad as the chief guest. The ceremony is held by the Department of Rural Sociology and Institute of Agri. Extension, UAF, in collaboration with Aurat Foundation and USAID under the project Gender Sensitization and Women Empowerment in Agriculture Sector. As many as 25 students are awarded the scholarships including five for PhDs and 20 for MPhil programme. The students for PhDs would be given Rs 10,000 per month whereas MPhil students would get Rs 6,000 per month.

UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan was the guest of honour while MNS Agriculture University Multan Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Asif Ali, US Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies Chief of Party Dr Bashir Ahmad, Aurat Foundation representative Hasna Hameed, Dr Neveed Farah, Dr Farah Riaz, and Dr Binish also spoke on the occasion. Miles Toder said that US government was assisting Pakistan for the cause of women education and uplift of agriculture sector. He stressed upon the need to empower women in the every area of life as it constitutes more than 50 percent of population. He said that the education was the key of progress and the women must be blessed with knowledge. The different initiatives for women empowerment were being taken on the part of government, media and civil society, he said, adding that the women were facing discrimination which demands stepped-up efforts. He hoped that Gender equity programme would help in combating the gender based violence. He said that the US find the agriculture the one of the most important area for Pakistan for which investment was being made for the uplift of the area. He also said that issues like climate changes and water scarcity were posing the serious threat and affecting the agriculture sector.

UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan that women empowerment was prerequisite to achieve sustainable development and prosperity. We cannot make the development without involving the women in socioeconomic activities and bringing them into mainstream. He said that UAF was making conscious efforts to promote the education in women as 45 students of UAF were women. He said that the UAF was promoting the women cycling at the campus to facilitate them and to minimize their dependency. He said that USAID funded Centre for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security had been established at the campus, that will help the address the issue of food security. MNS Agri University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Asif Ali stressed upon the need to educate the rural women to empower them by creating awareness about their rights in the society. He said that rural women are playing a pivotal role in the development of agricultural but their role remains unrecognized. Prof Dr Bashir Ahmad Khan under the CAS, work on 22 research projects are being done addressing the issue of food security. He said the courses of MS veterinary ; MS seed and MS nutrition were being reviewed. He said that in a year, the CAS had provided 72 scholarships out of which 57 percent are girls. Aurat Foundation representative Hasna said that her foundation was taking all tangible steps to reduce the gender gap in Pakistan by proactively supporting the development and empowerment of women. Dr Binish said that Pakistan stood at the bottom of gender-related development index and ranked 120th number out of 146 countries across the globe. Deputy Mission Director USAID Miles Toder along with UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan also inspected the ongoing development work of CAS building.