A cohort of 885 Pakistani agricultural professionals has returned home after completing advanced agriculture training in China and will serve as master trainers across Pakistan. Under the Prime Minister’s Initiative for Capacity Building of 1000 Agricultural Graduates in China, the programme has so far seen 648 men and 237 women finish intensive courses at five leading Chinese universities in nine specialised areas.
The agriculture training covered a wide range of practical and high-level subjects tailored to Pakistan’s needs, including farm mechanisation and modern tools for efficiency, crop speed breeding for cotton, hybrid rice, vegetables, pulses, wheat and alfalfa, and adoption of drones, IoT and AI in farming. Participants also studied advanced seed production and processing, livestock health and genomics, shrimp aquaculture production and processing, high-efficacy irrigation systems, and value addition techniques for fruits and vegetables.
The Higher Education Commission implemented the programme with guidance from the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. Trainees were selected through a rigorous and inclusive process from federal and provincial research institutes, universities and the private sector, with a special quota to ensure representation from all regions including Balochistan.
Returning professionals are tasked with cascading their learning through demonstrations, on-farm training and extension activities aimed at farmers, extension workers and students. By applying the methods and technologies acquired through the agriculture training, the master trainers are expected to help increase productivity, improve water use efficiency and expand value chains in rural communities.
The programme remains active as the remaining 115 participants are slated to begin their courses in April 2026. Organisers say the initiative is designed to bridge knowledge gaps through international cooperation and to deepen practical collaboration between Pakistan and China in the agricultural sector.
