Global warming, crop shifting emerging challenges: Chairman PARC

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Dr. Muhammad Afzal has said that global warming, diversification into high value agriculture and food security was the emerging challenges.

He stated this while chairing a meeting of the Technical Working Group of the Wheat Production Enhancement Initiative for Pakistan here on Wednesday.

He said that pests and diseases like wheat rust were declining farm profitability and posing a threat for food security across the glob.

He informed that the project is aiming at mitigating the threat of wheat stem rust in Pakistan by supporting research that leads to the development and introduction of disease resistant wheat varieties in the country.

The long term objective is to increase wheat yield and enhance wheat production with both improved varieties and greater adoption of best management practices, he added.

The collaborative efforts proposed under this project are in direct response to the spreading threat of new, virulent strains of wheat stem rust.

Speaking on the occasion J. Carroll, USDA, US Embassy in Pakistan said that US-Pakistan collaboration would continue and asked the agricultural scientists to play their effective role in research and ensure food security.

Dr. Hans-Joachim Braun, Director, Global Wheat Program, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center briefed the meeting about the international and regional wheat research activities for enhancing wheat productivity.

While Dr. Rick Ward from CIMMYT explained about the project activities in Pakistan.

The meeting was attended by Agricultural Scientists from Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtun Khawan, Punjab, Sindh, Northern Areas (Gilgit) and AJK.