An aeroponic seed potato production technology project has been established in Pakistan through the Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) between RDA-KOPIA and PARC. For sustainable potato production, producing high-quality and disease-free potato seeds is critical in Pakistan. The majority of the farmers recycle their own seeds or obtain them through informal ways. Consequently, tuber-borne illnesses proliferate, seeds deteriorate, and yield diminishes. To mitigate such problems, the country moved to sustainable seed potato production by adopting rapid seed multiplication strategies like the combination of tissue culturing with aeroponic seed production technology which is being evaluated as an alternative to traditional pre-basic seed production methods. A series of experiments were carried out to evaluate the shoot development and mini tuber production attributes between two cultivars, different plantlet size and planting period between October 27, 2021, and January 27, 2022, at the NARC aeroponic facility. A CRD design with three replications was used. The study aimed to compare the productivity by variety, plantlet size and planting period to improve aeroponic seed production technology in Pakistan. The results indicated that Lady Rosetta outperformed Asterix in terms of shoot growth and small tuber output. Early planting at an optimal temperature of 27 degrees Celsius in the daytime showed a substantial difference when compared to late planting in November and tuberization was commenced 50-55 days after transplantation. Furthermore, in an aeroponic seed potato production system, normal plantlets (8-10 cm) at the time of transplantation, performed better than medium and small plantlets. In a nutshell, it was determined that normal size plantlets (8-10 cm) of Lady Rosetta cultivar, planted at optimum time to plant showed best results in the aeroponic system at NARC, Islamabad, Pakistan.

This study aims to survey current chicken industry and the status of technology based on the KAFACI project on the promotion of good management for increased productivity of market oriented small scale chicken producers in Nigeria. The agricultural sector has been identified as a virile sector with varieties of opportunities for the much sought diversification of revenue base and employment generation in Nigeria despite the dominance of smallholder farmers. The chicken enterprise has being a component of the livestock industry showing increasing importance. Growing entrepreneurships for sustainable growth of the industry requires investigating the prevailing environment in market-oriented chicken production in Southwest Nigeria. This study investigated the production practices, constraints of market oriented smallholder chicken farmers. Data were generated through farm survey of 240 farmers selected by multi-stage sampling techniques from 5 out of 6 states in the Southwest. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study shows a population of famers dominated by male 76.7% and average year of education of 13.88years. Foundation stock of birds are prominently sourced from commercial hatcheries (75.8%) and reared under intensive management system (87.8%). Majority of the farmers (46.7%) are into rearing of layers, broilers and cockerels with an average stock size of 449, 157 and 158 birds respectively. Birds are fed twice daily (74.8%) on compounded ration by 95.4% of the farmers. Major production constraints are high feed cost (32.1%), shortage of capital (30.0%) and poor access to market (25.4%). However, 96.7% of the farmers considered the enterprise profitable.

The main objective of this paper is to sequentially analyze the major themes in rural devel-opment by taking the case studies of Pakistan and Korea using the framework proposed by Ellis andBiggs. The data presented in this paper is based on an intensive review of literature and in-depth inter-views with some key persons from different organizations in the Republic of Korea. It indicates that atthe time of independence, both countries had weak industrial base and the economy was largely depen-dent on agriculture. Agricultural development remained the main focus of Pakistan’s development poli-cies since independence; however, it was not until early 1970s when development of agriculture and ruralareas became the priority of Korean government. Though many development projects have also beenimplemented in Pakistan since its independence, inconsistent policies adopted by different politicalregimes is one of the main reasons for comparatively poor performance in agriculture and rural devel-opment sectors while the Korean government and policy makers have quickly responded to differentchallenges that emerged from time to time. It seems that Korean government is taking necessary mea-sures to diversify the rural economy through the promotion of agricultural value addition, rural tourismand improved marketing infrastructure to meet new challenges, along with the commendable efforts ofits research and extension organizations; however the response of Pakistan seems rather sluggish in thisrespect. The concluding argument is that though contextual, cultural and socio-economic differencesmay be taken into account while comparing the development history of different countries, developingcountries can learn substantially from the experiences of a developed country in some particular sector,notably in the problem solving approach, integrated strategy, agricultural value addition, strengtheningof local governments, livelihood diversification in rural areas, effective linkages between different orga-nizations and emphasis on sustainable livelihoods.