PESHAWAR
New Development Farm (NDF) of The University of Agriculture Peshawar in collaboration with University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) was held a One-day wheat sowing event on titled: “Sowing of climate resilient high yielding wheat lines developed by Washington State University (WSU), USA for the sub-continent”. The event was held under the supervision of Prof Dr Jehan Bakht, Vice-Chancellor University of Agriculture Peshawar.
On this occasion, Provincial Minister for Higher Education Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Dr Muhammad Qasim Jan attended the event as a chief guest. The US Consul General Peshawar Shante Moore, Senator Nauman Wazir, Vice Chancellor University of Agriculture Faisalabad Dr Iqar Ahmad Khan, Air Commodore Amin Khan, Vice Chancellor University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Peshawar Dr Iftikhar Hussain, and other senior officials of academy attended the event.
Ambassador, Vice President of Washington State University USA Dr Asif Chaudhry and Climate Resilient Weight Lab Prof. Kulvinder Gill gave an online briefing to the participants of the event.
The provincial minister for Higher Education Department (HED) KP Dr Muhammad Qasim Jan said that rapid increase in global temperature is affecting agriculture badly, the Wheat Sowing Project will benefit the wheat growing regions, which will help to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat and food security.
Increasing temperature is a big issue during certain stages of growth of most wheat plants, so for wheat varieties to increase yield per acre of sowing, South Asian countries need to increase wheat productivity through modern agricultural practices.
They said that climate resilient and high yielding wheat cultivation is the best way to increase production to meet the growing demand and climate resilient wheat are more important for the region due to global warming.
Winter here is becoming shorter and warmer, which has already posed threats to sustainable wheat production, so priority areas for research and development to increase wheat productivity are investment in hybrid wheat, water use seed efficiency, high temperature tolerance and disease resistance.
Dr Muhammad Qasim Jan further said that in order to increase food production, it is very important to make farmers aware of its importance along with experiments on new seeds and in this regard, promote the method of sowing wheat varieties should be given so that seed will not waste, every seed becomes a plant and the yield per acre is increased.
He said that the success of this seeding will be beneficial not only in the province of KP but also in the whole country to increase the production of wheat.
Prof Dr Jehan Bakht, while thanking all the participants, said that Washington State University, USA had given wheat seeds to the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad two years ago which have the ability to withstand high temperature and productivity.
After that research, now the productivity and characteristics of these wheat varieties will be observed after sowing in the climate of KP.
