A substantial amount under Cerry Lugar Bill of 1.5 billion $ US assistance to Pakistan would be invested on agriculture, stated by US Agricultural Council at US Embassy in Pakistan Mr. Joseph M. Caroll while addressing a seminar on business incubators organized by UAF Endowment Fund Secretariat as chief guest here at Old Senate Hall on Saturday morning. He added that 180 million population of Pakistan depends on agriculture and US is very much aware of the fact that agriculture is the only way forward to bring prosperity and happiness in the rural as well as urban life. Mr. Joseph M. Caroll while expressing concerns over rising poverty trends in southern Punjab stressed the need for collaborative and integrated efforts of public and private sectors in order to achieve the desired goals of poverty alleviation.

He revealed that a US team is likely to visit Pakistan from October 4, to whom he will advocate maximum US assistance in the agriculture sector. He underlined the need for virus free cotton varieties as cotton was severely suffering from CLCV and Mealy Bug. Referring the declining trends in getting patents of Pakistani intellectual properties Mr. Joseph told that in early 2004, India and Pakistan established their IPOs with 17000 and 489 registered patents respectively but after 5 years India has touched the figure of 60,000 against 125 in Pakistan which needs to be reverse in the years to come by simplifying the patent procedure to encourage the innovators.

UAF Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan asked the faculty to bring forward such projects with passion to solve the social problems with the novel and innovated ideas. Referring to the contributions of Nobel Laureate Agricultural Scientist Nornam E. Borlaug he said that prior to 1950, a long wheat straw used to laid on the ground on every heavy rain or wind storms thus the produces were destroyed but after introduction of small wheat straw varieties by Borlaug, world became surplus in the food and such innovative ideas can bring positive change in the society. He told that USAID has established endowments in various organizations to enable the scientists for their substantial contributions through innovative research approaches as it is moral and legal obligations to bring change for the society.

Engineer Mansoor Malik Ex-Director General National University of Science & Technology Islamabad told that 10% professors of China involved them in technology incubation and commercialization contributing upto double of the Pakistan annual GDP so wee need to bring forward with agricultural incubations to augment the pace of development as agriculture is the sole mainstay of this country. He revealed that incubation is the process of converting knowledge into products and services and it is only university where new knowledge is created and how much faculty transforms their novel idea into products. He said that Agriculture University is the most suitable place for setting up a national innovation centre. Highlighting the commercialization process, Engineer Mansoor Malik said that there is a circle of four aspects comprise technology, strategy/marketing, capital and implementation. Referring to the progressing been made by Prof. Nastle, he said that he used to spent most of the time in his lab but to feed his kids and run his family, he introduce milk powder and now Nastle is the buzz word for progress and prosperity. He said globally spin-off companies are usually run by the faculty of the country so faculty needs to come forward with the workable ideas. Mr. Ali Salman, Mr. Khuram Qureshi and Executive Direct Endowment Fund Secretariat Prof. Dr. Zafar Iqbal Randhawa also spoke on the occasion.