Announcement of scholarship in flood studies by Australian University

The saying that every cloud has a silver lining might seem inappropriate in Pakistan, which is reeling from the worst monsoonal flooding in history.It's a country that relies heavily on agriculture, 50 per cent of its exports are rice and other grains, and the inundation of the Punjab region, the nation's food bowl, prevented nearly all this year's crop of wheat and rice from being planted.

The University of Faisalabad has a century-long history and many programs and student exchanges with the University of Western Australia,Dr Iqrar is the Vice-Chancellor of the Faisalabad University, and says although the flood is very much a disaster, it's also an opportunity.

"This disaster has given us the opportunity to learn things like dealing with disaster management and develop costing models amongst other things," says Dr Iqrar. "We've started working with the CSIRO on remote sensing and we are continuing with our co-projects with the University of Western Australia. "In fact, we are looking at funding a scholarship for a Pakistani student to undertake a PhD in covering the floods."Potatoes crop a number of times a year and have a quick turnaround time from planting to harvest, which would also be very beneficial. "Potato diversification would be a very good idea because the wheat season is short. "And if the land is not ready for that, then in another month we can plant potatoes."

Source: http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=70608