FAISALABAD: The Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) funded by the USAID will offer at least 100 scholarships this year 20 for PhDs and 80 for Masters/MPhil programmes.

Talking to reporters on Thursday, University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad said the CAS for Agriculture and Food Security had been established at the university that would help boost the agriculture sector and alleviate hunger by producing trained manpower, research work and outreach in collaboration with the University of California, Davis.

He said five chairs biotechnology, precision agriculture, climate change, outreach and agriculture policy chair had been established under the project. He said a state-of-the-art building of CAS worth Rs550 million was being set up at the UAF in which 12 well-equippe d laboratories would be set up.

Dr Jim Hill from the University of California Davis, USA, said the programme would help the UAF in finding innovative solutions to solve national and global challenges related to food, agriculture and environment through excellence in education, research and outreach.

He said the CAS would also support the UAF in producing the highest quality workforce in the fields of food and agricultural production to bridge a gap of academic research with industry and the government, conduct client-oriented applied research in focus areas to ensure sustainable agriculture and food security. Staff Correspondent