Faculty of Agriculture, Unram Host of USAID-Training for Pakistan
MATARAM, Lomboktoday.co.id—Faculty of Agriculture of Universitas Mataram (Unram) has been selected to be the host of Training for Pakistan Program sponsored by United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The training was held for a week, from Saturday, February 2nd, to February 9th 2013, in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara (WNT).
The program themed ‘Agriculture Policy and Agribusiness as a Study Tour’ was designed by USAID to the high official policy-makers of four provinces in Pakistan. The participants consisted of chief secretaries and chiefs of state-level government agencies.
Program Coordinator, Liana Suryaningsih, explains that the objective of this training program was to provide a thorough understanding on management of the agricultural sector by providing the participants with information on several important related aspects, as well as introducing them to empirical application of management experience in West Nusa Tenggara’s agricultural sector.
This program includes information sharing on Musrenbang, the formulation process of the development policy implemented by the Governement of Indonesia.
These objectives, according to Liana, are achieved through a series of activities, such as discussions, classroom activities, institutional visits and case studies of projects that have been implemented. There are three aspects of interest to the participants, i.e. water management, food security, and agricultural extension.
To achieve the program objectives, Faculty of Agriculture, Unram, involved some of its experts associated with the three mentioned aspects. In addition, the faculty also invited speakers from other institutions, namely Jasa Tirta I, a state-own company (BUMN) that manage Brantas River Basin System in East Java, who shared their experiences on multipurpose water use, which includes water for consumption (domestic water), irrigation, power generation, and also tourism.
The Faculty of Agriculture, Unram, cooperated with AgriTC (Agriculture Training and Consultancy) and Satya Dharma Foundation Mataram as the organizers. Both institutes prepared and executed the training agenda. In the other occasion, Munir Ubaedy, the Director of AgriTC said “Considering too many agendas should be covered by this training, I think one week program is too short. Yet, the time frame has been set by IIE and USAID. We worked hard on preparing this training, especially to design the most proper format of the training.” “AgriTC have been trying to answer as many as problems facing by participants in their home country by setting up the comprehensive agendas of the training”, he added.
The training program officially began with a welcome dinner at the Governor’s Guest House last Sunday evening (February 2nd, 2013).
In the occasion, the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Unram, M Sarjan, gave an introduction about the program and also welcomed the delegations as official guests of the faculty.
Representative of delegations, Mr. Farhat Ali Mir, thanked the government of WNT for the outstanding reception, and hoped that the program could be the beginning of further cooperation.
In the same occasion, Chief Secretary of WNT Province, H. Muh Nur, addressed the participants on behalf of the Governor of WNT, TGH M. Zainul Majdi. He stated that WNT is the perfect place to learn about agriculture. In addition, this activity is expected to become the start of establishing cooperation between the government of WNT and the government of the provinces in Pakistan, especially in strengthening food security. “As fellow Islamic countries, Indonesia and Pakistan could help each other in improving food security,” he said.
Some of the important activities included in the program were: first, sightseeing to several locations, starting from the State Museum of WNT Province, Phoenix Food, and home industry for processing of agricultural products; second, discussions with the trainers at the Faculty of Agriculture, Unram; third, site visits to the Department of Public Works of WNT Province and the Bureau of Logistics, Regional Division of WNT; fourth, Lumbung Product Expo, processed agricultural products expo in collaboration with Lumbung Community, target groups of Satya Dharma Foundation; fifth, field trips to various locations to see firsthand the practice of management of water resources in Lombok.
In general, the activities went smoothly and the objectives were achieved. The Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Unram, officially closed the program and concluded with a presentation of certificates to the participants on Friday evening (08/02) at Senggigi Beach Hotel. (ar)
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