Swiss Ambassador to Pakistan Thomas Kolly paid a visit to the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore’s Ravi Campus at Pattoki on Wednesday and stressed the need for increasing public-private partnerships to tackle climate change challenges.
The ambassador held a meeting with Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Talat Naseer Pasha, senior faculty members and discussed climate change, this year’s prolonged winter season’s bad effects on agriculture and livestock, water conservation and public-private cooperation to mitigate the effects of climate change.
The Vice-Chancellor briefed the Swiss ambassador on UVAS’s academic, research, training and extension projects, clinical & community services and national and international linkages/partnerships.
The ambassador appreciated and supported the UVAS initiatives/ projects especially those involving private sector. He also visited the site of one of such initiatives ‘‘Agriculture Water Efficiency Project’’ which is being executed by the university with the support of the Swiss government and Nestle Pakistan. Under this project the UVAS is using drip irrigation system to water 1,400 fruit plants orchard, which is spread over 6.92 acre land at A-Block Ravi Campus. Over 40 per cent water and a lot of time is saved by using the drip irrigation system, the ambassador was informed.
On the occasion Mr Thomas Kolly and his wife planted jacaranda saplings in front of the Prof Akram Complex.
The ambassador also took a round of various laboratories at the Central Laboratory Complex where researchers briefed him on the labs functioning, research projects and diagnostic services. Prof Pasha informed the visiting dignitary that these labs are being used for training of students as well as disease diagnosis and feed analysis for the industry and farming community.
The ambassador appreciated the state-of-the-art facilities/technology available at the labs and the quality of their services for the industry and community.