Ludhiana,
A six member delegation comprising scientists from Michigan State University and officials from the Agricultural Ministry of Afghanistan visited Punjab Agricultural University on 12th January, 2018 to discuss admission procedures for Afghanistan students in the University’s Masters and PhD programme to be conducted jointly by PAU-ICARDA and MSU. Prof. Frederik Derksen of Michigan State University and leader of Afghanistan’s GRAIN project remarked that it was focused on the country’s capacity building in wheat. “Since PAU played a vital role in making India the world’s second largest producer of wheat, we look up to this University to participate in the project by hosting and training suitable students from Afghanistan who can go back and contribute to the country’s wheat development programme”, Derksen added. Dr Anne Schneller from MSU lauded PAU’s outstanding reputation in wheat breeding and extension services, while adding that she was hopeful of seeing a number of girl students from Afghanistan seeking admission at PAU, under the GRAIN project. Dr Ghulam Hazrat Halimi, Advisor, Minister of Agriculture, Afghanistan, said he was confident that the students trained by PAU would bring about uniqueness to Afghanistan’s wheat programme while addressing the current constraints. PAU Vice Chancellor, Dr B.S. Dhillon, outlined the research, teaching and extension mandate of the university and assured all possible help for the project including remedial courses in English, technical writing and statistics.

Earlier, Dr R.S. Sidhu, Registrar, PAU, formally welcomed the delegates. The team also visited the experiment wheat areas as well as the departments of Plant Breeding, Soil Science, Agronomy and Farm Machinery and Power Engineering.