Food for thought: ‘Pakistan should switch to non-organic crops’

FAISALABAD:

“Pakistan and other countries of the region housing vast population have to promote Genetically Modified (GM) crops rather than organic crops to meet the demands of the increasing population,” says University of Faisalabad (UAF) Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmed Khan.

The VC was speaking to a delegation of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) on PhD assessment at Syndicate Hall on Thursday. The delegation was headed by Professor Dr Khalid Aftab former vice chancellor Government College University (GCU) Lahore, Professor Dr Zafarullah former vice chancellor Bahauddin Zakaria University (BZU) and Professor Dr Muhammad Mukhtar, vice chancellor Islamia University Bahawalpur. Dr Iqrar said the global population had now reached 6.8 billion and was likely to top 9.4 billion by 2050. He said that Europe was a food sufficient region and was now shifting to organic crops but the same model could not be applied for Africa and developing nations as the inhabitants of third world countries were facing food shortages.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2012.