‘4,000 hectares lost to salinity every year'

Modern technology needed to bring green revolution.


Express November 22, 2011

FAISALABAD: Approximately 6.3 million hectares of land has been lost due to salinity in Pakistan so far and an additional 4,000 hectare of land gets affected by salinity every year, according to experts.

At a seminar titled “Soil Quality for Food Security” arranged by the Institute of Soil and Environment Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, here on Tuesday, Higher Education Commission Adviser Dr Riaz Hussain Qureeshi stressed the need to adopt modern technologies in a bid to fight salinity in the country. “The step will help bring a green revolution in the country,” he added.

He called for developing new avenues by adopting state-of-the-art technology and researches for increasing the per acre production. He further said that due to changing climate, there was a challenge confronting the country. He said that under the circumstances, new verities of crops compatible to the changing weather should be prepared.

He also said that universities of the country were lagging behind in the area of research. In the field, the researchers have to expedite the pace of work, he said adding that researchers of various sphere should work jointly in order to fulfill the dream of food security.

German scientist Prof Dr Sven Schubert from the Institute of Plant Nutrition, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany was the guest of honour. In his address, Schubert said that the issue of food security was one of the most important issues of the world.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23rd, 2011.

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