ISLAMABAD:
Federal Minister for Nationwide Meals Safety and Analysis Rana Tanveer Hussain on Friday inaugurated velocity breeding amenities for wheat and pulses on the Nationwide Agricultural Analysis Centre (NARC), Islamabad, a transfer geared toward accelerating crop enchancment and addressing meals safety challenges, in line with an official assertion.
The velocity breeding expertise allows crops to be grown beneath tightly managed environmental situations, considerably shortening breeding cycles. By extending photoperiods to as much as 22 hours utilizing specialised LED lighting and sustaining optimum temperature and humidity, wheat can full its life cycle in six to eight weeks. This enables 5 to 6 generations to be produced in a single 12 months, decreasing the traditional varietal growth timeline of round 14 years by practically half.
The wheat velocity breeding facility has been established at NARC’s Crop Sciences Institute beneath the PSDP-funded Wheat Productiveness Enhancement Mission. Outfitted with managed glasshouse chambers, LED develop lighting techniques and environmental controls, the power has already developed greater than 3,000 new wheat traces, that are at the moment present process discipline yield trials. It has additionally been used to coach scientists, breeders and college students, with protocols being tailored for different crops.
Pakistan’s first devoted pulses velocity breeding facility was additionally inaugurated beneath the PSDP Pulses Mission. Pulses are a significant supply of inexpensive protein and contribute to soil well being by organic nitrogen fixation, however productiveness good points have remained restricted as a result of lengthy breeding cycles and rising local weather and illness dangers. The brand new facility allows 4 to 6 generations per 12 months in crops equivalent to chickpea, lentil, mung bean and mash by managed development chambers and adjustable lighting. In line with the assertion, work is beneath approach on superior chickpea breeding traces and a number of segregating generations, with improved phenotyping beneath uniform situations.
Chairman Pakistan Agricultural Analysis Council Dr Syed Murtaza Hassan Andrabi mentioned the adoption of superior breeding applied sciences was important for reaching sooner genetic good points and enhancing crop resilience. He mentioned the amenities mirrored efforts to modernise agricultural analysis and strengthen collaboration with nationwide and worldwide establishments.
Hussain additionally inaugurated an Clever IoT-Based mostly Good Glasshouse at NIGAB. Unfold over 2,640 sq. ft, the power integrates IoT sensors, synthetic intelligence, programmable management techniques, and knowledge analytics to help genome-assisted breeding, stress biology analysis and superior phenotyping. It’s at the moment getting used for warmth stress screening, speedy development of wheat generations, aquaponics-based cultivation and the acclimatisation of gene-edited vegetation.
Talking on the event, Hussain remarked that the Clever Good Glasshouse represents a future-ready nationwide asset that bridges genomics, digital agriculture, and sustainable meals manufacturing.
He appreciated the efforts of scientists and researchers concerned in creating these amenities and reaffirmed the federal government’s help for scaling such initiatives, strengthening collaboration with nationwide and worldwide analysis organisations, and fostering publicnon-public partnerships for sustainable varietal growth.
