Agriculture research and development

July 30, 2013

Vice-chancellors of all agricultural universities demanded of all the agricultural research and development funds from Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) should be diverted to Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARAC) being top research body.
An official source said that vice-chancellors and heads of agricultural universities and colleges demanded this in a meeting presided over by PARAC Chairman Dr Iftikhar. The meeting also established a forum for Agricultural Research and Co-ordination Mechanism. The meeting urged that all agricultural research and development funds from HEC and PSF should be diverted to PARC and further distributed among provincial universities and colleges, he said.
He said that following the 18th amendment HEC and PSF directly send research and development to the provinces which is badly affecting research activities, especially agricultural research. " Direct sending of fund to provincial universities without consulting PARC, is causing duplication in the field of research, as mostly provincial universities and PARC conduct research on similar matters", he said.
The official said that Dr Iftikhar Ahmad has explained the consequences of 18th amendment, how it affected PARC and other agricultural research and development institutions. PARC chairman also proposed Terms of Reference ToRs of the forum to seek comments and suggestions from all the participants. The ToRs include joint research planning through forum meetings, designing collaborative mega research projects, joint supervision of student research, data base development and information sharing, exchange and training of technical personal and material for research and academic development and sharing research reports/article/ periodicals. Prioritise research agenda in consonance with national development needs/ priorities and future challenges, review the action plans for implementation of research agenda, technically scrutinise research projects and suggest improvement in project design/methodologies, review/evaluate specific projects and sector reports, deliberation and joint work on policy framework on agriculture and livestock, he said.
Chairman PARAC informed the meeting that PARC five-year plan is in the final stage which will be shared through this forum for guidance. The meeting also decided that only high tech agricultural research and development should be done at PARC level and PARC should strengthen its relations with International Agri. Research Centers and Institutions to seek mega projects as well as ensure better capacity building for the agricultural research and development, he said.

Source:

PARC scientists role for agri development lauded

Saturday, July-13-2013

Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research (MNFSR) Sikandar Hayat Bosan said Friday that scientists of Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) were playing a pivotal role for the promotion and development of agriculture sector in Pakistan.

“Research results and advance knowledge should reach at farmers’ door-step in order to boost up agricultural production and to ensure food security in the country,” the federal minister remarked during a meeting with the newly promoted scientists.

He urged the scientists to acquaint the farming community about advance knowledge and introduce new varieties at their farm to achieve maximum per acre production.

The PARC promoted its seventeen (17) senior management scientists in grade 20 and 21. The promotion of the PARC scientists was pending for the last one-and-a-half year and had created fear and apprehensions among the scientists community about their promotions, said PARC press statement issued here Thursday.

Source: The Nation
News Collected by agrinfobank.com Team

Growing okra in coastal areas

By Engr Kamran Bukhsh Soomro

PARC, Southern Agriculture Research Center, University Campus, University Road Karachi Pakistan

OKRA, called Bhindi, is cultivated in tropical, sub-tropical and warm temperate regions. It can also be grown in the coastal areas of Pakistan.
The length of the country’s coast is about 1,100kms which ranges from Gwadar in Balochistan to Badin in Sindh. Malir and other adjacent districts of Karachi come under the coastal area.Where there is shortage of water, drip irrigation system can be adopted. It is a system that applies water and fertilisers directly to the root zone of individual plant instead of irrigating the entire area with flood or sprinkler irrigation. The system comprises pipeline network as main, sub-main, lateral lines and emitters or tricklers which are fitted on laterals from which water is delivered to the plant at a low pressure.
Under proper management, drip irrigation system is capable of saving water, as only the plant’s root zone is supplied with water; under this system, the use of water is efficient with higher crop yield as compared to traditional irrigation method.
In the coastal areas, the groundwater is saline ranging from marginal to hazardous quality and can be used for cultivation of okra and other vegetables. The Coastal Agricultural Research Station of PARC has taken an initiative for using marginal quality irrigation water in comparison to good quality water under drip irrigation system.

The amount of water applied through drip system to okra crop was 6,989.7m3/ha. The crop yield and water use efficiency was 16.96t/ha and 2.43 kg/ respectively. Thus, it was concluded that okra crop can be grown successfully on a sandy loam soil using saline (marginal quality) ground water for irrigation.
Okra has a great potential in coastal areas. Growers should be made aware of the use of saline ground water for vegetable cultivation.
Controlled and on-spot irrigation through drip system seems the only appropriate method to grow and sustain horticultural activities in this region.
It shall not only provide the required water to the plant but will also resist salt built up in the root. Another possibility may be prevention of diseases particularly of fungal origin.
However, there is need for more research on the use of saline ground water for cultivation of winter and summer vegetable crops and fruit orchards in the coastal belts of Sindh and Balochistan under the drip irrigation system for the benefit of the people of these area.

^{Courtesy: The DAWN}

Genomics to improve farming

By Ijaz Ahmad Rao

Biotechnology is having an increasingly important impact on various sectors and disciplines. Combined with genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, biotechnology can greatly aid our ability to confront the challenges of production, management, and sustainability of agriculture and economic development.

It can enhance crops yield and quality, develop stress-tolerant crop varieties, improve nutritional content of foods and neutralise effect of food contaminants, and find new ways to face threats to bio-security.

These issues were discussed at a recent international symposium on “Genomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics: Recent Trends in Biotechnology” held by the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics (MMG), University of The Punjab, in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission, National Biotechnology Commission, Core Group in Biological Sciences.

More than 190 delegates, some from Europe, participated in the symposium whose main objective was to provide new ways to use animal, plants and microbes, in order to improve quality of environment and economic sustainability of a country, to commercialise indigenous technologies and to help bridge the gap between global scientific communities in terms of existing and expanding frontiers of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics.

Environmental and political considerations have created a growing demand for plants-derived bio-fuels like ethanol and bio-diesel. It is appropriate that Pakistan should support research efforts in genomics and proteomics. It has enormous potential in agricultural both in cropping and livestock sectors. There is a need to fill actual productivity and potential productivity gap by adopting appropriate strategies and modern technologies to meet such problems as low resource use efficiency in agriculture, land degradation, water-logging and salinity, low organic matter, and low level of technology.

Despite continued progress in genetic improvement, optimal levels of crop productivity or desirable nutritional balance has not yet been achieved. Seed metabolism must be modified substantially to produce food-feed as well as industrial and medical products to satisfy future evolving societal demands. Such modifications need integration seamlessly into the complex but poorly understood processes of seed metabolism and development. Genomics offer new opportunities to address seed performance and productivity, to develop nutritionally desirable seeds, and to achieve industrial and pharmaceutical applications.

Collaborations between genomic researchers and plant breeders are crucial to enhance crops yield. With the help of tools of modern biotechnology and methods of genomics and proteomics, our future challenges of food, feed and energy sectors can be addressed. This new knowledge will change the future of breeding for improved strains of all domesticated species of crops, livestock, fish, and trees either through transgenomics or genomics-based conventional breeding.

“The first plant genome that has been completely sequenced is a small model species, Arabidopsis thaliana. The genomic sequencing of economically important crops is also being undertaken”. The most advanced are the several public and private gene sequencing projects on rice, all of which are now in the public domain. A maize genome-sequencing project is also in progress. Rice, maize and other cereals share a large number of common genes.

Several other genome sequencing projects of at least 130 different plant species are in progress. The plant genetic resources are the vital components of plant biodiversity, precious heritage of mankind, therefore they need to be collected and conserved before they are lost for ever.

There are about 6,000 plant species in Pakistan; out of these only 1,010 species are identified as having medicinal value. Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) established a “gene bank” at the Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resources (IABGR) and the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), which contains more than 30,000 genes and DNA of different plant species. The germplasm of major cereals, minor cereals, food legumes, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, fiber crops, fodder and forages and medicinal plants are available from this ‘gene bank” for scientists and researcher for the development of new varieties. More recently PARC has established with NARC a new institute the National Institute for Genomics and Advance Biotechnology (NIGAB); which will conduct research on structural and functional genomic of both plants and animals.

In Pakistan, there are hundreds of scientists working at more than 29 centres conducting biotech research in different areas. These institutions have, to their credit, a number of major achievements in modern biotechnology. A few of them have developed plant expression vectors for the introduction of foreign genes into crops like Bt pesticidal genes used in cotton and rice against bollworm, rice leaf-folder, top leaf bore in sugarcane.

The use of new techniques for understanding and modifying the genetically modified organisms (GMO) has led to understanding the role of proteins through proteomics and metabolomics in order to have better knowledge of multi proteins expressed in a particular plant in specific environmental condition. These developments have been accompanied by public concerns as to the power of the new technologies and the safety and ethics of their use for improving human health, agriculture and the environment.

Scientists are trying to explore how genetics and environmental factors work together to cause human diseases which can be helpful in the prevention and treatment of many illnesses and as well as individualise the therapeutical strategies. There are extensive efforts under way to identify the genetic and environmental basis of common diseases like cancer, asthma and diabetes. The present challenge is how emerging scientific discoveries, such as those in the rapidly evolving fields of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, amongst others, can be translated into safe applications leading to new varieties of crops, drugs and products.
Courtesy: The DAWN

 

Source: http://www.pakissan.com/english/advisory/biotechnology/genomics.to.improve.farming.shtml