Research necessary to meet demand for food

Research in plant sciences is critical to produce alternative fuels.

LAHORE: Research in plant sciences is critical, not just to meet the increasing demand for food and feed for animals but also to produce alternative fuels.

These views were expressed by the Pakistan Botanical Society (PBS) president Prof Dr Ikramul Haq at the opening ceremony of the International Conference of Plant Scientists at the Government College University (GCU).

Haq also stressed the need for producing biomass and plant products from plants that can be used as sustainable industrial feed stocks. The society president termed it a challenge “since all this has to occur against the backdrop of global warming, changes in weather patterns, increasing levels of atmospheric CO2, continuing water shortages, loss of arable land and erosion of valuable topsoil”.

The PBS president asked the research community to try and come up with crop varieties capable of high yields under a variety of climatic conditions. He also highlighted the need for investment in plant science research.

He told the participants that plant biotechnology also offers an opportunity for finding renewable alternatives to non-renewable petrochemical outputs in terms of energy sources, polymers, plastics, pharmaceuticals etc. These applications of biotechnology to non-food crops are potentially much more “environment friendly” than current petrochemical processes.

Botanists from Germany, Egypt, China, Canada, and Turkey have gathered at the Government College University Lahore to deliberate on scientific solutions to food and fuel challenges.

Addressing the conference, GCU vice chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Aftab said that the success of a conference is often mistakenly gauged by the number of research papers presented. “Our criteria is not the quantity but the quality of research,” he added.

He said that GCU would hold more international conferences in the near future as such conferences provide a platform to scientists from various backgrounds to interact and exchange ideas. Prof Aftab also termed the conferences an opportunity for young scholars to interact with well known biologists and learn from their knowledge and experiences.

GCU botany department chairperson Prof Zaheeruddin also addressed the opening ceremony.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd,  2011.