As part of their Caring for Water Initiative, Nestlé Pakistan in collaboration with University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) inaugurated their latest Agricultural Water Efficiency Project at UVAS Ravi Campus, Pattoki. This initiative is aimed at strengthening Nestlé’s vision of improving the agricultural yield in Pakistan and has the potential to save 14.87 million liters of water annually.
One of the major threats Pakistan faces today is water scarcity, with our current per capita annual water availability 1,017 cubic meters. The agriculture sector remains one of the largest and most inefficient users of water hence it is important to focus on increasing the overall efficiency of water use by this sector.
Nestlé Pakistan has established a site that demonstrates best practices which enhances crop production with minimum use of water. The site will serve as a knowledge hub for students and farmers on scientifically proven irrigation management techniques, including drip systems and a delivery line network on a 6.91 acre crop site having citrus and guava crops of 3.51 and 3.40 acres respectively.
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Freda Duplin, CEO, Nestlé Pakistan, said, “Water is a resource which is fast depleting. Nestlé is devoted to working towards helping address the issue adopting collective action, as is envisioned in our Caring for Water initiative. Our collaboration with UVAS is another step towards that. Agricultural Water Efficiency Project will encourage the preservation of water resources in the long term. By the end of 2019, we want to help save 400 million litres of water in Agriculture with the help of our partners: Punjab Agriculture Department, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council and now UVAS.”
Speaking on the occasion, Talat Naseer Pasha, Vice Chancellor, UVAS, said: “This collaboration with Nestlé Pakistan is an excellent initiative to address the water challenges being faced by Pakistan. More than 90% of water usage is for Agriculture and in order to successfully tackle the impending water shortage, we need to encourage farmers to become mindful of how they use water. We are hopeful that this collaboration will serve as a knowledge sharing platform and be a model of how sustainable agricultural production can be achieved while improving crop yield”.
