FAISALABAD: Linkages between academia and industry are vital to develop knowledge-based economy, says University of Agriculture Faisalabad Pro Vice Chancellor Dr Asif Tanveer. Chairing a meeting of the Department of Entomology, of the UAF, he said it’s prerequisite to ensure adoption of modern trends and coordination of all stakeholders including industry, academia, research and farming community is imperative to make the agriculture a profitable sector and ensue the food security. He said the university was taking all possible measures to develop the demand- driven research work especially to address the problems of the agriculture sector. Talking about the agriculture sector, he said this segment in the country was under the grip of challenges including low productivity, non-certified seed, post- harvest losses, lack of mechanisation and climate change for which we have to take measures to ensure food security. He said agriculture was the backbone of the economy which was contributing 19 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product.