During the study period of graduation, choosing a major for the Master of Science, can be really tough for nearly every student who is willing and applying for higher education in abroad. But for me, not the case.
I've made up my mind to study and research in Olericulture, as Pakistan is an Agricultural country and nearly 70% people are directly or indirectly involved in agriculture and earn their livelihood from agriculture. Olericluture is one of the most important subdivisions of agriculture. It deals with the production, storage, processing and marketing of vegetables.It encompasses crop establishment, including cultivar selection, seedbed preparation and establishment of vegetable crops by seed and transplants. How I made this decision was truly this simple, but effective.
That was many years ago and during my graduation years, the original thought that population of Pakistan is growing very fast and people are moving towards urban areas and building houses, more and more agricultureal land is utilized to build houses, no enough space for growing crops. Years of education has made it pretty clear to me that how important and happy it would be if I can do something I love for the rest of my life.I think I'm on it now and I'm also working hard while happily to keep on it. This is not the only reason I choose Olericulture as my major though, I do, at the same time, be aware of the fact that, in many cases, a scientist may not only do the research he is interested in. He might have to work with some international companies, which export vegetable and vegetable products to different countires to earn foreign exchange or government agencies on some projects. It is my belief that one should take people's and country's needs into account.
For example, Pakistan’s agriculture sector is facing certain problems like, too much use of pesticide and insecticide, the use of pesticide and insecticide directly and indirectly affects the health of human being. Awareness should be created among farmers and landlords to avoid the use of insecticide and use the biological control which is cheaper and effective. Most of the land is not under cultivation, due to certain soil problems. I do think it's every scientist's responsibility to make an effort on how to solve these problems which are existing in our country since its birth.For me, when doing something that is not my major research interest but can be beneficial to the majority, I do have the sense of the honor of being a scientist who is responsible for and valuable to both his people and his career.
Olericulture, by no doubt, is one of the subjects that is closest to people's lives. So, pursuing Master in Science (M. Sc) - studying and discovering something new in such a discipline can be both fascinating and meaningful to me. And that's exactly what I want.
