Probing Agricultural Engineering Education in Pakistan a Changing World

Abstract

This paper is a review of history and status of agricultural engineering education in Pakistan and suggests possible avenues to make agricultural engineering in Pakistan competitive and relevant to both local and global needs. Refinements in the curricula had since been made by incorporating new subjects to foster changing needs of agriculture and global competitiveness. Most recently, agricultural engineering curricula especially in USA, Canada, and UK has seen the integration of mechatronics, machine vision, precision farming, bio-imaging, remote sensing, machinery guidance systems, bionanotechnology, bioenvironment; the basis of all this is the increased need to undertake a systems level approach, in the form of Biosystems Engineering, with biology as one of the core subjects. This requires an in-depth review of the existing agricultural engineering curricula in Pakistan; possibly renaming and restructuring of faculty/departments, training of faculty, establishment and up gradation of laboratories, strategic plan to overcome bureaucratic and social resistance to implement all these changes.