PARC || E.News

Organic Food Sale in World Trade Increasing Rapidly: Dr. Tusneem

The five-day International training workshop on “Organic Farming, Organic Production and Inspection” was held on April 21. Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and National Productivity Organization (NPO) Pakistan jointly organized the event. Delegates from 10 Asian Productivity Organization (APO) member countries, which include Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Land, Thailand and four international trainers/resource persons from India, Philippines and Germany along with two local resource persons participated in the workshop.

Dr. M. E. Tusneem, Chairman PARC, Dr Munir Ahmad, Member SSD, PARC and others speaking at the workshop on
Organic Farming, Organic Production and Inspection on April 21

Chairman PARC, Dr M.E. Tusneem while inaugurating the workshop said that the topic of the workshop is vitally important because the production, marketing and use of organic agricultural products is expanding at fast pace throughout the world. He said that food safety and sustainability lies at the heart of organic farming and is one of the major factors determining the acceptability or otherwise of specific production practices. The term “organic” is best thought of as referring to the concept of the farm as an organism, in which all the component parts of soil minerals, organic matter, micro-organisms, insects, plants, animals and humans interact to create coherent, synergistic and stable production environment, he added.

Dr. Munir Ahmed, Member, SSD, PARC while presenting introductory remarks said that Agriculture Linkage Program (ALP) organized four workshops earlier and this is 5th workshop funded by ALP. Dr. Muhammad Saeed, Program Officer, Asian Productivity Organization (APO) spoke on various aspects of organic farming and Dr. M. Azeem, CSO, SSD presented vote of thanks.

PARC Holds Integrated Watershed Management Conference

Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) organized a three-day conference on Integrated Watershed Development for Food Security and Sustainable Improvement of Livelihood in Barani Pakistan from April 1-3.

The main objective of the conference was to promote agri-growth in barani areas of the country to get maximum output.

Most of the food crops, including fruits, vegetable and pulses are grown in these areas which contribute significantly in total national agri-output.

Conference on Recent Advances in Biotochnology

National Commission on Biotechnology (NCB) in collaboration with National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology (NIGAB) of PARC organized a two-day National Conference on Recent Advances in Agricultural Biotechnology. The conference was attended by more than 200 researchers from Pakistan. Three scientists from Sir Lanka, USA and UK also presented their papers.

Dr M Akram Shiekh, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Dr Kausar Abdullah
Malik, Member Planning Commission, Dr Nasim Anwar, Chairman National
Commission on Biotechnology and Dr M E Tusneem, Chairman PARC sit
on the stage during a National Conference on Recent Advances in
Agricultural Biotechnology.

The conference was inaugurated by Dr. M. Akram Shiekh, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission. While speaking on the occasion Dr Akram underline the need of knowledge based agricultural practices and teamwork for meeting the future challenges.

Chairman, PARC, Dr. M E Tusneem highlighted the on-going and planned future agri-biotech activities of PARC particularly of the newly developed National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology (NIGAB). Dr Tusneem said that this new state- of-the-art centre will emerge as a focal point of all the agricultural biotechnology activities in Pakistan.

Visits Abroad

Dr. Munir Ahmad, Member, Social Sciences Division, PARC Inception Workshop for USAID-Funded Project on OASIS: Combating Dryland Degradation, Amman, Jordan: April 2-4.
Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, Member, Plant Sciences Division, PARC Third International Conference on Late Blight, Beijing, China: April 3-6.
Dr. Nadeem Amjad, CSO/Director, FMI, Mr. Shabir Ahmad Kalwar, Senior Engineer/Project Incharge,
Dr. Riaz A. Mann, PSO/Project Incharge, Rice Program, CSI, NARC: Second Annual Review and Planning Meeting of the ADB Funded Project” Development and Dissemination of Water-Saving Rice Technologies in South Asia: Cuttack, India: April 17-22.
Dr. Muhammad Sharif, CSO, and Mr. Hassnain Shah, SSI, NARC: Meeting of PARC-IFPRI Collaborative Project “High Value Agriculture: New Dehli, India: April
Dr. Khalid Naeem, CSO/Project Director, National Reference Lab. On AVIAN Influenza, ASI, NARC: Inception Meeting for the OIC/Japan Trust Fund Project for Strengthening Highly Pathogenic AVIAN Influenza Control in Asia: Tokyo, Japan: April 21-23.
Mr. Jahangir Khan, SO, AZRI, PARC, Quetta: Special Training on Measuring, Collecting and Analyzing the Data of Wheat and Barley Crops: Aleppo, Syria: April 26 to May 19.

Dr. Iftikhar For New Tech For Potato Development

The celebrations of International Year of the Potato will increase awareness of the importance of the Potato as food in developing nation and promote research and development of potato based system. This was stated by Dr.Iftikhar Ahmad, Director General, NARC while speaking on a two-day seminar on Potato Research and Opportunity for New Millennium organized by National Potato Programme, HRI, NARC from April 29-30.

Dr. Iftikhar Ahmed, Member Plant Sciences/DG NARC, Iftikhar Ahmad, Director, HRI, and Malik Masud Mahmood, Coordinator Potato, sit on a stage during the National Seminar on Potato Research and Opportunity for new Millennium organized by National Potato Program, HRI at NARC from April 29-30

The Director General said that new technologies must be developed to make the potato available as a dependable low cost food in the world's low-income countries. He further said that potato is attacked by various kinds of viruses which not only decreased the yield but make it unable to use as seed in the next year. The emerging problems in Pakistan relating to the development of frost resistant and heat tolerant cultivars.

Mr. Iftikhar Ahmad, Director, HRI said that this seminar is a wonderful activity for increasing the coordination between public and private sectors engaged in Potato Research Programame.

He said that Pakistan can rightly feel proud of having a wide and varied climate conditions stretching from North to South, alpine at the heights, down to semi-tropic and tropic.

Mr.Masood Mahmood, National Coordinator, Potato Programme presented the vote of thanks.

PICTURE GALLERY

Snaps of the function regarding the Birth Anniversary celebration of Hazrat Muhammad, The Pride of the Prophets (PBUH) at NARC and PARC

Chairman PARC, Dr. M. E. Tusneem addressing during Milad function at NARC .

Chairman PARC, Dr. M. E. Tusneem and others offering Salam at NARC .

Syed Asmat Ali Shah Gilani, Islamic scholar, Qari Nazir Naeemi, Dr. M. Saleem, CSO, PARC and Muhammad Aslam Alvari, Director Establishment-I are speaking during the Milad function at PARC.

Potato Plays Vital Role in Agric Sector: Dr. Iftikhar

A meeting of National Committee was held to celebrate International Year of Potato-2008 on April 17 at NARC. Dr. Iftikhar Ahmed, Director General NARC, chaired the meeting. Representative of FAO, head of potato seed companies, processing industries, NGOs, progressive farmers and senior officials from federal and provincial research system also graced the occasion

Dr. Iftikhar Ahmed, Member Plant Sciences/DG NARC presiding over the National Committee Meeting for the celebration of International
Year of Potato-2008 at NARC on April 17.

Dr Iftikhar Ahmad while speaking on the occasion said that the potato has prime importance in the agriculture sector because of four crops grown in one year. There is a considerable increase in the area and production during last few years which helped in promoting the livelihood and well-being of farmer community". He further said that potato crop is subjected to various viral and fungal diseases especially late-blight which poses a serious threat to the crop in various agro-ecologies of Pakistan. By celebrating International Year of The Potato-2008, We will be able to strengthen the linkages between private and public sector and promote awareness in potato growers of the country. He assured full cooperation on the part of PARC to all stakeholders in order to achieve the objectives of the meeting.

Dr. Khalid Farooq, SSO National Potato Program NARC gave a presentation on the status of potato crop in Pakistan.Ma1alik Masud Mahmood, National Coordinator Potato, NARC, briefed the participants about the importance, strategies and objectives of the International Year of The Potato-2008. He presented the action plan prepared in close collaboration of FAO and PARC for celebration of the potato year.

Mycotoxins and Management Strategies in Food Grains

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by a variety of moulds on several agricultural commodities under specific environmental conditions. It has been estimated that at least 25% of the grain produced each year worldwide is contaminated with mycotoxins.

In temperate climates, the mycotoxins of major concern are the trichothecenes (including deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV), T-2 toxin and HT-2 toxin), zearalenone (ZEN), the fumonisins (FB) predominantly fumonisin B1 (FB1), the ochratoxins, predominantly ochratoxin A (OA), and ergot. However, aflatoxins (AF) are of concern in food and feedstuffs imported from warmer tropical and subtropical regions. Aflatoxins are naturally occurring toxin produced by the molds A. flavus and A. parasiticus, the most potent carcinogen found in nature. Aflatoxin contamination have been reported in many crops caused by Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus. The fungus, A. flavus grows over a wide range of temperature (between 10-40°C) at high relative humidity (RH). Adverse effects on human health, livestock and poultry have been reported.

For further information Please contact:

Dr. Yasmin Ahmad, PSO, CDRI, NARC, Islamabad.

Fulbright Scholars Visit IABGR

Ms. Alenka Hlousek - Rodogeic and Ms. Cheryl Colopy visited at the Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resources on April 22.

The visit was organized by the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan. The purpose of their visit was to explore opportunities of working US Fulbright Fellows in different laboratories of Pakistan.

The Deputy Director General, Dr. Zahoor Ahmad briefed the visiting team on the research activities pertaining to genetic diversity in germplasm collections, in-vitro conservation, genetic transformation, gene cloning, marker assisted breeding, gene identification for Boron Transport in Plants and biofuels. The research scholars also visited various laboratories of the Institute.

Conference on Animal Vaccine Production

Pakistan Agriculture Research Council in collaboration with Agriculture Support Linkage Programme (ASLP) Australia organized a conference on "Opportunity and Challenges for Animal Vaccine Production". The issues and challenges faced by the vaccine manufacturing units in the country were highlighted.

The ASLP is Australian sponsored programme, which provides financial and technical assistance in dairy farming, prevent mango fruit from disease and agro- farm machinery.