Training plant doctors in Pakistan

So what's the problem?

In the Punjab region of Pakistan the government is looking to increase employment amongst young adults by providing them with advanced vocational trainings and skills. The Punjab Skill Development Fund supports this by funding a number of initiatives in the area and has decided to fund a CABI project which will boost the skills of agricultural young professionals and contribute to the uplift of agriculture in Pakistan.

What is this project doing?

In this project, CABI is training 80 individuals to give them the skills to become advanced Plant Doctors - increasing their chances of finding employment within the agricultural sector in Pakistan.

The project has selected 20 applicants from each of the 4 poorest districts within the region after advertising in local newspapers there. Trainees must all have either a Diploma in Agriculture or an FSC in Science to be accepted on to the course.

The course runs for 4 months at CABI’s project offices in the respective districts and covers seed quality, soil health, effective use of fertiliser and integrated pest and disease management. It is envisaged that those trained will work for farmers, pesticide dealers, companies and governments.

This project links in to CABI’s Plantwise programme as Plant Doctors trained in this process will link with the Plantwise Plant Doctors in the field and provide market information, advice on pesticides, agrodealer assessment, plant clinics data for knowledge bank and other areas as needed.
 

Results so far

The first 43 trainees are currently taking the 4 month course (February – May 2012) at two CABI offices in Bahawalpur and Muzaffargarh districts.

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