KARACHI - Deputy Director General, Defense, Science and Technical Organisation (DESTO) Prof Dr Saifullah Khan has said that according to experts, two billion world population may be increased in next twenty years, for this reason we may face another food crisis due to increase in population.
He expressed these views while delivering a lecture on ‘Plant Biotechnology, Scope and Technology Trends in Pakistan’ to the students of Biosciences Department, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University on Friday.
He said that in future this could be tackle through beneficial traits in crops via plant tissue culture.
Highlighting upon the historical background of agriculture sector, Dr Saif said that the world first faced acute food shortage problem after world war second. In order to overcome this crisis, chemical revolution was launched in agriculture sector by introducing use of chemical fertiliser and pesticides spray on crops.
He said that after chemical revolution; green revolution was started during which importance was given to the better yields crops. He said that now plant biotechnology has become most important for agriculture sector in Pakistan because it not only helps farmers to acquire better yields of their corps, but also save them from expenses in respect of the use of chemical fertiliser and spray of pesticides.
He said that in plant biotechnology, we may transfer good qualities of a plant in other plants. He told that we have produced a new kind of cotton crop which is known BT cotton with the help of this technology and banana corps also saved from various diseases.
Dr Saif in his lecture emphasised on the basic necessities and the need of full skills required in Pakistan tissue culture and to compete in international market. He focused on current techniques use in plant tissue engineering to acquire better yield of corps and to produce disease free corps.
He said that the tissue culture technology can be helpful to increase the export quality corps and fruits in Pakistan to boost the economy of the country. Senior faculty members of Biosciences Department Dr Khitab Gul, Dr Huma Javed, Bushra Bilal, Anam Tariq and Faizan Saleem were also present on this occasion.
